Karen Dolfis Wehner and Paul Wehner, both '93, were married September 29. Also shown is Paul's son, Allen.

1993

10 Year Reunion
Class of ’93: Reunion Weekend is May 2 to 4! Help plan Reunion Weekend. Contact Hwashing Heyworth at 847.467.6386 or h-heyworth@kellogg.northwestern.edu.

Hello to all and thanks for all the input. First, it has come to my attention that some things may have gotten lost en route to me, and some people have had trouble with my email addresses. I apologize for any problems you may have had. The above addresses are all correct, and I do try to put information in as soon as I receive it. Please remember that there is often a lag time of a couple of months between the time I have to submit the article and the time it actually appears in Kellogg World, so if you don’t see your information here, it might be in the next issue.

Paul E. Schaafsma has published The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Managing Intellectual Property (Oasis Press, 2002).

(Belated) congratulations go out to Karen Dolfis Wehner and Paul Wehner. The were married Sept. 29 of last year. David Josephs served as best man, and Leslye Sims Emptage and Julie Wheeler were bridesmaids. Also attending the wedding were Denise and Evan Allen, Dave Hecht, John LeMay and Mark Cozzi. Karen and Paul now live in Highland Park, where Karen is a marketing manager for New Platforms at Quaker. Paul has left the health care industry and is a hedge fund analyst for a firm called D2 Capital, which he reportedly loves. Congrats!

Congratulations also go to Dean Ottati, who has recently written a book and had it published by Breakaway Books. The Runner and the Path: An Athlete’s Quest for Meaning in Postmodern Corporate America focuses on the difficult task of honest introspection in the middle of our busy modern lives, and it is available on Amazon.com. Dean would love to hear what classmates have to say about the book.

Eric Menke wrote in that he and five others recently raised and closed a $100 million buyout fund called Champlain Capital Partners. After spending the last few years acquiring middle-market companies on an ad-hoc basis by himself, Eric felt “it was time to raise a committed capital fund with a larger team.” They are now looking for “brick and mortar” companies with revenues of $20-100 million in manufacturing, distribution and service sectors.

Also making some moves on the career front is Tim Coleman. He and his wife, Jennifer, left Indianapolis, where he had been leading part of the Information Technology organization at Lilly for the last several years. They now live in Tampa with their two sons (3 years old and 5 months old), where Tim is on a developmental assignment as a regional sales leader.

Rob Gershon is moving out of consulting and back to Connecticut with US Surgical.

Ana Witherow has also recently made a career change. She writes that after taking eight months off, she decided to get out of the start-up business, and she is now doing financial planning for corporate execs and high net-worth individuals. She works for a small firm called Brownson, Rehmus and Foxworth, which has offices in Menlo Park, Calif., Chicago and New York.
Mark Waldron is still enjoying the entrepreneurial world, although he says it’s a lot of work. Mark recently finished the initial turnaround of a medical services leveraged acquisition. He is now about to work on a fast food buyout.

Yet another classmate making a recent move is Dave Mullarkey. Dave writes that after four years, he left the venture-backed, start-up world at SCIREX and joined Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceuticals group strategic marketing organization. After some major commuting in the first six months, he and his family have moved closer to the new job while they build a new house near Princeton, N.J. Along the way, they welcomed their second daughter, Jillian, last June — congratulations!

Finally, in the category of “it’s a small world,” I have been pleasantly surprised to run in to several classmates recently. Mike Rife now lives next door to my parents in Wilmette along with his wife and three adorable boys (they even share their playground with our children when we are in town!) Mike is still working with Salomon Brothers in Chicago, where he is a managing director.
I also recently figured out that one of our neighbors is none other than the brother of John LeMay. Through this connection, I am happy to report that John and his wife recently celebrated the birth of their first child, a daughter named Sophie — congratulations!

Finally, Joe Gregg and I crossed paths during a layover in the Minneapolis airport. Joe and his family are living in the Seattle area, where he is the marketing director for Stimson Creek Winery. If anyone is interested in the wine business in the Seattle area, Joe says to give him a call!