From left: The bride's mom, Ruifang Cao, groom Ivan Guo ’03, bride Jenna Lee, and bride's dad, Defu Li

2003

Reunion Weekend is April 30-May 2! We hope to see everyone there.
The summer of post-Kellogg life is definitely over, as we all become accustomed to early morning alarms, long commutes and uncomfortable clothes. It’s been great to hear from people throughout the summer and learn about their adventures traveling and moving. This is the first in a series of regular columns to update everyone on all the news that’s fit to print about the lives, loves, new babies, new homes and new jobs for the members of the Class of ’03. Please help us in this endeavor by sharing the latest juicy and not so juicy details about your lives and the lives of your Kellogg friends. You can send us notes between publications and we’ll make sure to include them in the next column. Pictures are especially welcomed. Just make sure that there is at least one Kellogg alum in the picture. That includes baby pictures as well!

Before the good stuff: Class of 2003 email accounts are about to expire, so please don’t forget to update your alumni forwarding address at www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/alumni/services/email.htm. New grads will be asked to type in the email account where they want to receive mail. The mail is then forwarded to their Kellogg email address. This was mentioned in both the end-of-year KIS message to the Class of 2003 and the letter you received from the Alumni Relations Office with your alumni account information at the end of the school year.

So what have our classmates been up to? Well, weddings and engagements were definitely the order of the summer.

Sriram Jambunathan had a fabulous summer, the high point of which was getting married July 10 and traveling. He writes: “Two Kellogg weddings inspired a third, as my marriage to Sangita and Gulshan Verma’s marriage to Anusha is rumored to have led to the wedding of Attila Toth, who proposed to Edit in the backwaters of Kerala.” Congratulations, and best wishes to everyone!

Another wedding occurred overseas: Cheril Santini and Henning von Barsewisch were married July 19 in Heiligengrabe, Germany. The couple then moved to Scotland, where Cheril is doing strategic development for Propoor Holdings, the holding company of several social enterprises including the Big Issue in Scotland. Henning is starting up the UK sales division of REpower Systems, a Hamburg-based wind turbine manufacturer.

Paulo Mesnick was married in August at a wonderful ceremony at which many of our classmates were in attendance.

Weddings also took place right here in Chicago. Ivan Guo was married Aug. 2 to Jenna Lee.

Bo Sandine ’03 and Maria Ramirez ’02 at the Sprite Liquid Mix concert in Irvine, Calif.
From top left: Mauricio Angulo ’03, Alex Malfitani ’03, André Pimenta ’03, Philipp Goyeneche ’03, Ricardo Alario ’03, Michele Ghitnic Mesnik ’02 and Ricardo Guerra ’02 at the wedding of Paulo Mesnick ’03
Cheril Santini ’03 and Henning von Barsewisch married on July 19 in Heiligengrabe, Germany.

Over Labor Day weekend, a true Kellogg couple, Jodi Matthes and Dan Gingiss ’02, were married in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. As an attendee, Tindley can say that the wedding was absolutely gorgeous, and it was so great to see a number of our classmates, including Deniz and Margarita Cultu and Kelly Hetherington, who also married this summer.

Rumor has it that Chris Dupré is continuing to have late nights, even post-Kellogg. No, they are not because of his work at Bain & Co. in Dallas, nor are they because he’s rewriting all books used at Kellogg. Chris and Michelle are now proud parents of a beautiful, bouncing baby girl named Mackenzie Blair Dupré, born Sept. 16. Can anyone say Class of 2031?

John Lawson has begun work as an investment analyst with Legg Mason Capital Management in Baltimore, Md. John, wife Catherine and baby Abigail are now living within one hour of both sets of new grandparents. Congratulations!

After spending the summer traveling throughout Guatemala and Belize, Mike Shaffer and his wife, Heather, have moved into their new condo in Chicago. Mike recently started as an associate at Brown, Gibbons, Lang and Co., a middle-market investment banking firm.

Robert Levak is a clinical oncology specialist at Genentech Inc. in Mercer Island, Wash.

Edward Bird is now an executive associate at M&T Bank Securities in Baltimore, Md.

Other birdies have updated us on their fellow classmates. Colby Maher and Brady Countryman returned in September from their amazing trip to Nicaragua with Kellogg Corps. Having to bring her laptop along made it easy for Colby to keep friends and family updated over the summer. Emails were written offline and then uploaded, and these updates made most feel like they were traveling with them. It is clear that they made quite an impact in both their structured program and in the informal conversations and personal interactions they had.

Andy and Emmy Berlind are excited to be back on the West Coast in San Francisco. Expect to see Emmy and Brian Gauck, both working at Clorox, performing in future Clorox commercials or at least beginning a singing group in San Fran. Jennifer McKnight is also working at Clorox.

Mike Simonton has made his home in Canton, Mich., and is already in the process of working with bars to establish Kellogg Nights and fund-raising events. Check your email for upcoming events. It’s also rumored that Mike is still trying to sell some tough-to-find Kellogg items.

Karuna Uppal had great updates from her many travels in Europe. After returning from traveling, Karuna began her job at Banc of America Securities in the global markets group. She attended training in New York and started permanently in the Chicago office in September.

At the beginning of August, a bright yellow Volkswagen Bug was spotted traveling from Colorado to Texas. Who could be inside but Ankle Engelking in her new car. After traveling to Europe this summer with her mother, Ankle went back home to Colorado and then headed to Dallas to begin work with Frito Lay. She is now working on WOW! Chips and Baked Lays. Keep your eye out in the aisles for any product changes that may be the work of Ankle.

It was great to see many members of our class at the birthday party of Amy Earle at a really hip club in NYC. Also in attendance were Sam Barnes, Iris Seidmann and Rachel Gerstein.

Ian Powell spent the summer traveling with fellow classmates to six countries on 14 planes, five overnight trains, six boats, six bus/minibus/pickup trucks, and staying in 24 hostels and three campsites. After a respite back in Chicago, he has settled into his new home in Washington, D.C.

Two Kellogg weddings inspire a third. Sriram Jambunathan ’03 (second from left) and Sangita, and Gulshan Verma ’03 and Anusha tied the knot this summer, which allegedly inspired Attila Toth ’02 (far right), who was visiting, to propose to his long-time girlfriend, Edit. Photo taken at Sriram and Sagita’s wedding in Chennai on July 10.

Jesse Marmon spent the summer in Central America studying Spanish in Guatemala, building houses with Habitat for Humanity in Nicaragua and adventuring in Belize and Honduras. She found her way back to the States and is living in Boston, where she works as a consultant for Bain & Co.

Sam Barnes has officially moved to the Upper East Side in NYC and is taking the city by storm. Iris, who lives just one block from Sam, should be on the lookout.

Diane Gomez has started work at Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson company, in Miami Lakes, Fla.

Lisa Karbiner and husband Mike found time during their busy summer to travel to New York and the Greek islands, while also moving to a new place in Chicago.

Rumor has it that if you’re ever in Atlanta, you can find the inseparable Gerry Gilligan and Brent Reid living in a cool loft in the Midtown area. Gerry echoed the feelings of most when talking about their moving-in experiences: painful, annoying and time-consuming (long waits in a variety of government lines).

Valerie Weisman and husband Brian Weisman ‘04 are living between two cities while Brian finishes up his 4Q program at Kellogg. If you’re ever in Appleton, Wis., Valerie is the gal to call.

Christina Hennington can be found in Minneapolis as the national buyer for camping equipment at Target and having a great time.

Diehard Red Sox fans Michelle Lev and husband Eric (a second-year at University of Chicago) are both sporting their new Red Sox hats, as at the time of writing, the Red Sox had just clinched their Wildcard berth for the American League. Michelle is enjoying work at Prophet in Chicago.

Tindley Gilbert and Huw are spending most of their time watching the Cubs. By publication, we’ll all know how it turned out. They spent the beginning of the summer in Evanston, then spent August traveling to Rio de Janeiro, El Salvador, Brazil and Colorado. Then they traveled to New York to find an apartment, where a three-day trip turned into seven days, thanks to deceitful apartment brokers and a power grid failure. Luckily, they were able to spend time (and the blackout) with Rachel Wexler and her husband, Michael. Rachel is enjoying her new job at the Princeton Review. They were very gracious hosts to a number of people stuck without places to stay during the blackout.

Barry Grant can be found back at Ford Motor Co., working on marketing cars of the future and repairing homes of the past (namely, his). His place is always open to anyone with a craving to visit Motor City, personal tour of 8-Mile included. If you’re in New York, let Barry know, as he’s been known to go there a lot recently.

There you go! Some of you actively submitted information specifically for Kellogg World (thank you!), and others may find yourselves in here because you updated Barry or Tindley since graduation (thank you, too!). Until later, warm regards and good luck to all.

Tindley and Barry.