1993

Classmate James Weis reports that he and wife Nicky recently started an African safari travel business. James writes: “Nicky is a native South African. We met while I was on one of my annual (since 1995) African safaris a few years ago. Nicky worked for a safari operator in Johannesburg and is an expert on travel in southern Africa. We married last year and live in the West Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago.

“Like so many other Americans I’ve met, Africa got into my blood and I kept on returning. Our company is called Eyes On Africa, and we have an extremely comprehensive Web site for anyone thinking about traveling to Africa. Our URL is www.eyesonafrica.net. I invite anyone interested to check us out!”

Jaideep Bajaj is the new managing director at ZS Associates, assuming firm-wide management responsibilities from Andris A. Zoltners and Prabhakant Sinha, the Kellogg School professors who founded the management consulting company in 1983. Jaideep assumed his new role in July.

Classmate Beth (Eesley) MacLean sends this update: “It was great seeing so many classmates at the reunion. While I enjoyed having my girls with me, they kept me from connecting with people. So here’s my quick update. I’m still working at the Gap and have been here for eight years. I’m the senior director for human resources strategy, developing and driving a global HR strategic plan that’s aligned with our business priorities. With a new CEO and several new senior execs, it feels like a new job, so the work is fun and challenging. Bruce and I now have two little girls — Ellie, 3 1/2, and Grace, 10 months. They are the best!”

Irma De Hoyos recently moved to Las Vegas, where she works at Wells Fargo Mortgage. She’s still single, hyper as ever and loves the 24-hour action of her new city. She would love to meet up with you if you’re in town. Give her a call at 702.765.3738.

Fred Hagedorn and his family recently moved from their condo in downtown Chicago to a two-flat in Lakeview so the boys (Tyler, 7, and Alex, 4) have a yard to play in and wife Sarah can have a real garden. The Big Move actually occurred while Fred was in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where he served as the team leader for the sailing team at the Pan Am Games. The team did very well, winning two gold medals out of a possible eight. Four days after returning home, he was off to Athens, where he attended the Sailing Test Event for the Olympics, as he will be the team leader at the Olympic Games next year. Congratulations, Fred!

Brad Johnson is still with Owens Corning, but recently relocated (back) to Toledo, Ohio. His daughter, Kathleen, is in 1st grade and son Randall is just starting preschool. Brad and his wife, Allison, have come to love the Toledo area, which was a pleasant surprise to both of them. Brad is the business manager for the Cultured Stone line of manufactured stone veneer products and finding out how much fun it is to be in a growth business.

Donna Bauman (formerly Young) has had an interesting life since Kellogg, peppered with some big highs and deep lows. After a difficult divorce in 1994, she met a wonderful man in N.C., John Bauman, and they married two years later. They have three beautiful children, ages 3, 4 and 6. Probably the biggest surprise for Donna since Kellogg is that she realized that motherhood is much more important and more of a calling than she ever imagined it would be. Professionally, she found a great deal of joy in her work for six years after Kellogg as the associate director of the undergraduate business program at UNC Chapel Hill, where she now consults on a part-time basis so she can spend more time with her children.

Chris Meyering, his wife, Kala, and their 2-year-old son, Blake, recently relocated back to the Dallas area from Nashville, where they had lived while Chris had a short assignment with Microsoft. They’re now back “home,” and Chris is managing Microsoft’s System Integrator Partner business for north Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. He has been with the company for two years, joining them after a few stints with some startup software companies.

Jeff Urdan co-founded a startup BPO firm in the Philippines, which, unfortunately, succumbed to a lack of capital. So he’s back from Manila and trying to figure out what comes next. Having worked in consulting most of his life, he found it interesting to be in an operating role for the last three years.

Jeff has been in touch with Paul Lalvani, who is living in India and consulting to health ministries throughout the developing world. He was talking about the great opportunities in Kabul, Afghanistan, last time they touched base.

Steve Davies is working for a company that puts together energy deals in developing countries and has been traveling to Russia to help orchestrate what could emerge as a triumph of market forces over politics (and a cool case study for future generations of Kelloggians).

Brett Jarvis and his wife, Lydgia, recently moved to the San Francisco Bay area, where Brett (re)joined Oracle (he had worked there prior to Kellogg). Of course, he’s moved quite a ways up the ladder since then!

Craig Asher is also living in San Francisco and recently had an addition to the family. He is working as a product manager for Trigo, a company that makes software to help large organizations, such as retailers, CPG companies and manufacturers, keep track of products and parts and integrate supply chains.

Pramoad Phornprapha is alive and well and still with the Boston Consulting Group. He met his wife, Wannaporn, at Harvard (he went to the Kennedy School for two years after Kellogg), and they have a lovely 5-year-old daughter. He sees Paul Orlander twice a year during their BCG partner meetings. He also sees Pam Thanachanan occasionally and says she is doing well.

After 10 years in consulting and high tech, Tim DePriest returned to his roots in commercial insurance. He is the vice president of Chapman & Associates, the largest provider of insurance services for nonprofit organizations in the U.S.

Brian Vogel moved to Cleveland after graduating and lives in University Heights. Since 1999 he has been working in the wealth management group at Keybank, managing portfolios for wealthy individuals. In 1995 he married Kim, who works in the direct pricing group at Progressive Insurance. They have a 3-year-old boy, Riley, and 2-year-old identical twin boys, Simon and Aidan. They see John Lemay, his wife, Jackie, and their daughter, Sophia, on occasion.

Alfred Moeckli ’93 (in front of the Allen Center) with his Harley, which he drove from Atlanta to Milwaukee for the Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary Celebration

Since graduation, Alfred Moeckli has been back in his home country of Switzerland, working for Citibank for six years, then co-founding a startup Internet broker that had its IPO in May of 2000. In 2002 he had the opportunity to start an Internet bank from scratch as CEO. It’s the largest Internet bank in Switzerland. The hard work was exhausting, though, so he left the company last year to allow him more time to enjoy his private life, particularly his son, who was born in Evanston in August of 1993. He recently started a new company, offering advisory and consulting services in the financial services area in Switzerland. He also makes occasional investments in startups. Though he couldn’t make it to the reunion, this summer he drove his Harley-Davidson from Atlanta to Milwaukee for the 100th anniversary Harley celebration, stopping on the way at the Allen Center, where he had lunch with one of his professors.

Jon Bellman is in New York City running his management and technology consulting business, Reality Check, which he started in Evanston six years ago. The company is focused on supply-chain issues and is starting to see a turnaround in the economy. Jon is still single, plays a lot of racquetball and ran three half-marathons this summer. He’s thinking about doing the full marathon. Jon is actively involved with Kellogg and just started his term as Alumni Council president for MMM, representing the 12 MMM graduating classes. The group plans to hold exciting events this year in Chicago and New York, and perhaps other locations as well.

Jackie (Connelly) Pearson and her husband, Keir, welcomed the birth of their daughter, Anna Marie, on Aug 10. She joins 2-year-old sister Samantha. Jackie is a VP of marketing at JPMorgan Chase and lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Since May of last year, Jeff Balin has combined his pre-and-post-Kellogg experience to become a professional career and life coach. He loves the work and finds it extremely gratifying to help people reset their lives on the right tangent. He’s happy to listen to classmates needing a professional ear to pull on and offers a full complementary coaching session. He can be reached at 604.677.6743 or jeffbalin@shaw.ca.

Albert Manzone married Nathalie soon after graduation. They have three children: twin daughters Charlotte and Clemence, age 7, and son Philippe, age 3. His work with McKinsey from ’93 to ’96 and PepsiCo afterward has provided them with the opportunity to live in Chicago; Greenwich, Conn.; Istanbul; and back in Chicago since 2002.

Chip Hardwick (who just sent me the earliest-ever Christmas card/newsletter) is back at Princeton starting a PhD program in preaching at the seminary. He now finds himself at the front end of a five-year journey and jokes that pretty soon he’ll be old enough to play Rodney Dangerfield’s role if they ever remake the movie “Back to School.” Chip is sad to leave Atlanta’s North Avenue Presbyterian Church, where he has served for the last four years, but is very excited about his new adventure.
For those of you who haven’t yet heard, I’ve set up a Yahoo! Group for our class. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Kellogg93Alumni and sign up. Use it to keep in touch, network, whatever. Also, Dean Jain is making it a priority to strengthen the Alumni Network. The first step in achieving that goal is to have updated contact information for everyone. So if you haven’t updated your information on the Kellogg online alumni directory lately, please do it today. You have classmates who may be trying to track you down!