Jo, Ella and Jim Winnett

1992

Riff Report: My wife, Eva, and I enjoyed our July trip to Croatia and the Czech Republic. We spent time with Eva’s family and Steve Rappaport in Prague. Steve has moved to a bigger office/warehouse, and thankfully, to higher ground before the devastating August floods. Upon our return to NYC I was amused to see John Small on CNN and CNBC running a single-handed, nonsponsored “Save Martha” campaign on the streets of Manhattan. John is not defending her alleged insider trading, but rather publicizing how the media has taken to attacking her in heavy-handed and blatantly sexist-driven manner. John is the editor of the SaveMartha.com portal (www.savemartha.com). John splits his time between Seattle and Boise, where he is a campaign advisor to Idaho’s governor.

Speaking of politics, Bruce Guthrie is running for U.S. Congress in Bellingham, Wash., on the Libertarian ticket. “I think this is even more quixotic than trying to start a camping orientation program. My campaign statements can be found at www.lpws.org/guthrie.”

West Coast News: Ken Greenblatt and partner, Peter Walsh, celebrated their anniversary with a commitment ceremony at their Sherman Oaks, Calif., home. In attendance were alumni Elise (Cayelli) Wetzel her husband, Rick; Angela Comstock and Jim Bell; Beth and Kevin Kells; and Joe Husman. Ken is a film and television literary agent in Beverly Hills (isn’t everyone in The Valley?).

Joe and Lana (Etherington) Slavitt recently saw fellow ’65er George Corrigan do a stand up routine at L.A.’s famous Improv on Melrose (actually, maybe it was the pre-IPO road show for George’s Icevan.com). Joe and Lana both recently moved within L.A. The Slavitts moved into a Stickley Craftsman home in South Pasadena Estate, while DIY king Joe bought another fixer-upper in the L.A. slums (so he claims). Sounds like he got a Craftsman home, too, as he’ll be a regular at the Craftsman hardware department at Sears.

Karee and Christopher Rhoades just had a baby boy, Harrison Christopher Rhoades, in August.

Gary Dvorchak moved to San Francisco and is a portfolio manager at hedge fund EGM Capital (www.egm.com). The Dvorchaks hope to be one of the low-ball bidders that pop the SF housing bubble!

Nancy Dill writes, “I took last year off to enjoy a variety of activities including hostelling through Europe with my teen-age sons. I returned to work this spring as an internal consultant for Chiron in the Bay Area. The new job is a wonderful fit and I really enjoy its challenges.”

Kevin Sidders and family moved out of their house for a complete remodel over the next 12 months. Kevin is still at Thomas Weisel Partners, running the software investment banking group. “Speaking for the few, the proud, the still in I-banking, we’re all waiting patiently for a better stock market so that the deal environment improves. I still see alumni Bill Lakenan, Sean Rollings and Davin McAndrews pretty frequently in San Francisco.”

Alice Huffman Birch and Hugh Birch joyfully announce the birth of their daughter, Susannah Constance. She joins siblings Camille, age 5, and George, age 3.

Ironman and new dad, Jim Winnett had a baby girl in August, Ella Jordan. Jim has been training hard for the last 11 years to prepare for the Panama City Ironman Competition on Nov. 9. “Many of you know about the tragic Ironman competition in June where I competed but didn’t finish due to freak storm that killed some of the participants. Aside from my goal of completing an Ironman, I have the incentive of knowing that each mile I complete will raise money for charity. Please email me ASAP if you want to sponsor me: JimWinett@earthlink.net.

Between the Coasts: Bill Krueger, recently visited Toyota’s Tech Center in Ann Arbor. “I had dinner with Sean Conlin. We spent the evening discussing Sean’s future business opportunities and Wolverine/Badger football. I also attended a Toyota dealer meeting in Kohler, Wis., and ran into Dave Kohler at the gym.

Lynn Pigott writes to say that she participated in the Avon three-day walk for breast cancer research. “The walk was 60 miles from Kenosha to Chicago. The highlight was walking with my mother, a breast cancer survivor.”

Paul Mistor and Donna Potter have been teaming up for some consulting projects lately (mostly logistics, IT and operations). Matt Allgood spent a week in Honduras on a short-term mission trip with his church. “I was in the Cholucteca region which is the poorest region of the second-poorest country in the Americas. I spoke to a couple of audiences totaling more than 100 people and actually baptized one person.”

East Coast News: Gary Zentner is still on sabbatical from Deutsche Bank. Currently, he is on a two-month tour of East Asia and playing in two amateur golf tournaments while he’s there.

Dmitry Paramonov just joined Bristol-Myers Squibb in Princeton, N.J., as marketing director for early developmental medicines. He’s thrilled by the new 10-minute commute and the expanded challenges of moving into pharma from devices.

After 9-11, Air Force Lt. Col. Tim Krein was recalled to active military duty in Washington, D.C., and is on a leave from IBM while he works on the homeland security issue. “To get reacquainted with my wife, Patty, we took a long weekend in July at an old inn on a tiny Useppa Island off the west coast of Florida. Who should we run into but Juliette and Cedric Loriet-Bernal and their baby girl, Josephine. They have a house there and go there for a few weeks each summer before returning to Geneva.”

I hear that Andrew Jay has retired from Wachovia Securities for a while and is taking some well-deserved time off.

Classmates abroad: Federico Carillo finally writes in: “After eight years as a Lehman Brothers Investment Banker in New York and Mexico City, I decided to return to my home country, Costa Rica, to START ENJOYING LIFE! I am taking it much easier, working as CEO of the local stock exchange and focusing my efforts on strengthening my ties with my wife and four kids…and, of course, flying all over Costa Rica’s wild forests in my small and old Cessna to explore our most wonderful nature paradises.

Vinnie Desari now reports from Pune, India, after leaving Canton, Ohio. “I’m now president of Cummins India Ltd. Our sales are more than $200 million and we employ more than 2,500 people. Pune is beautiful and has colleges and universities, an air force base, hundreds of eating joints, go-cart racing and bowling and plenty of golf. The traffic, though, is terrible. If anyone visits India, or specifically Pune, I would love to show him or her around.”

Matthew Ginsburg is still in Hong Kong with Morgan Stanley and wants to hear from Phil Lane. Reach him at Matthew. ginsburg@morganstanley.com.
Mark Squires got married this summer to Louise, an architect, in Northumberland, England. Knud Rissel was best man and Greg Gordon came from Taipei to be an usher. Mark is CEO of his family’s ever-expanding business, a motorcar dealer group with 10 franchises and 20 sites.

That’s all the news for now so send me more!
Riff