Scott Schur '92 and his children, Natalie (6) and Madelyn (4)
	Scott Schur '92, his wife, Kathleen, and their children, Natalie and Madelyn, at Glacier National Park
	Theresa Zepeda Kelleher '92 and daughter Sofia Margaret

1992

News flow from you guys was just a trickle this quarter. While I did get some news from some class notes "virgins," I had to comb recent press releases and the 'wanted' notices at the post office just to get enough news for this issue. You guys better pick up the slack or the likes of Sharpe, Erwin, Schur and I will just have to start making up embarrassing stories about you all.

Class Notes Virgins:

Robin Stroud writes: "My family and I moved from Evanston in 1995 to Woodbridge, Va. It's been the Aflac duck and I for nearly three years now. My agency provides corporate benefits to every imaginable business and organization, small to very large, mainly in the D.C./Md./Va. region, though we have accounts in several other states. The work is great; the business model is robust; and the family is thriving. My youngest son just started 5th grade and my older son is a firefighter/EMT in a nearby community."

Stephen Crook joined Inforte Corporation as a principal in the strategy competency. He is based in the Chicago office with many other Kellogg alums.

Karl Killian says, "Greetings from Houston! I am now a founding partner in a new consulting firm named The Claro Group. Initially we will have offices in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. (all cities where we have lived since Kellogg). My wife, Marlene, and our two daughters are all well. I stay in touch with David Rowland (who's living large now with a lake house) and Al Weggeman (an upstanding citizen by all accounts), and I recently caught up with Katrina Helmkamp. I would love to hear from more from you guys: kkillian@theclarogroup.com."

Deborah Wienke is VP and director, marketing and communications of Harbor Federal Savings Bank in Fort Pierce, Fla. "I love the Florida lifestyle for scuba diving and championship golf courses."

Goldman Sachs managing director Todd Leland is a member of a partnership that announced the formation of the Chicago Children's Theatre, to open in January '06. Todd says nearly $1 million has already been raised for the project.

Andrew Bosko joined speech-recognition technology company Parus Interactive as VP of sales.

Shez Bandukwala was appointed a partner in Investment Banking in the Chicago office of ThinkEquity Partners LLC.

Daniel Bender was named a managing director in the Chicago office of corporate advisory firm AEG Partners.

Lawrence Bruder was elected president and chief operating officer of Guava Technologies, a private biotechnology and medical device company.

Andrew Savarie joined Bear Stearns as a senior managing director at its Chicago office.

Richard Bott joined Charter One Bank N.A., as SVP of banking in Chicago.

Former managing director of Pickering Energy Partners, Bruce Busmire, joined Texas-based drilling and oil services company Noble Corporation as CFO, senior VP, treasurer and controller. Well, at least they saved the secretary title for someone else. Previously Bruce was managing director of Pickering Energy Partners — a privately held energy research firm.

Harry M. Johns has been named president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association.

Mark Kornbluth, of Westport, Conn., is a SVP at JP Morgan Chase in NYC. He was named head of internet strategy for the commercial bank last year.

Linda VanEck Shepard writes, "When my first son (Ryan, now 9) was 1 and a half, I left the corporate world (director of finance – operations at Taco Bell) to have more time with my son. Twenty hours a week of his "awake" time wasn't enough to be an effective mother. I took an assignment as an individual contributor at a nonprofit, Discovery Science Center. I helped to build a science center in Santa Ana, Calif. As Ryan grew, he loved going to mommy's work since it was a huge playground. After my second son (Eric, now 3) was born, I stayed home for 18 months to be a full-time mom; it was just as much work but far more rewarding. This summer, I began consulting part time. As a stay-at-home mom, I have applied my skills to make wonderful things possible for my children and others. I hosted an astronomy night for 200 people at Ryan's school. This year, I'll coordinate a math and science family night with Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and be a Cub Scout leader for a fifth year."

The Usual Suspects

Vinod "Yo Vinnie" Desari left Cummins India in March 2005. He writes, "After three years, the company wanted me take a U.S. assignment, while I wanted my family to grow up in India. I have since joined Ashok Leyland — India's second largest truck and bus maker (sales over $1 billion) as COO. My family and I moved to Chennai, home of the Alumni Club of India. Last month, we hosted Professor Balachandran, Dean Jain and NU President Henry Bienen when they attended the inauguration the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai."

Simone Frank and husband, Lewis, are thrilled to announce the birth of their first child, Jason, in July.

Barbara and Steve Rappaport took a long-delayed vacation in Southeast Asia. They particularly enjoyed Vietnam.

David Ongpin Valdes was promoted to executive vice president and COO of the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper.

After nearly 13 years, Joanne Cho Sevrain left A.T. Kearney to return to industry. She spent much of the summer in Europe; worked on shorter independent assignments for some mid-market clients in biz dev and strategic planning; and has kept up her industry and academic board participation in Chicago and Detroit. "Within weeks of deciding to leave consulting, I began to realize that there are so many prospects to consider. I'm looking to friends for ideas and advice."

This summer, Scott 'Moose' Schur spent a nine-week sabbatical from Intel with his wife, Kathleen, and two girls on a road trip through the U.S. Northwest. They enjoyed extensive hiking in several national parks including Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton. They also had some R&R in Jackson Hole and Sun Valley that Scott probably expensed as R&D.

Scott ran into classmate Karl Souza at a gas station on the Oregon/Idaho boarder. Karl was returning from a family trip to Iowa. He is doing well and is a director at a private school in North Portland.

Mr. Steak 'n Potatoes, Gary Ger, is living in Seattle, where he is the marketing director of the infrastructure supervision business for Fluke Networks. That's electronic test equipment for us non-EEs.

Golden Gate Gazette

Mark McKechnie, still in San Francisco with his three kids (all still in diapers) has started a long/short equity fund called Twin Peaks Capital.

Theresa Zepeda Kelleher is thoroughly enjoying motherhood in Palo Alto, Calif. these days, as she takes care of her baby girl, Sofia Margaret, who was born in March. She has no plans to return to the working world anytime soon.

Eric "Mookie" Stetzler reports that he is alive and well: "I'm at Knight Ridder Digital in San Jose, Calif. I frequently see Chicago classmates Bob Armour and Tom Finke (at the Tribune)."

Another SanFran man, Carter Cast, failed to follow role model Bobby DeNiro's advice to "walk away immediately." Seems that old "Cash 'n' Carry" Carter left Wal-Mart.com to become chief marketing officer of eBay Š only to return within weeks to Wal-Mart. How spineless! Well, at least Wal-Mart made him president of all Wal-Mart.com. Quite frankly, I think he should have held out for 3 to 5 percent of Sam Walton's inheritance before going back. Now he'll never cash out so big that we could truly call him "Carry the Cash" Carter.

Erik Peterson writes, "Greetings from San Fran! After 13 years, I've decided I can no longer wait for admittance to the Forbes 400 list to post an update. I'm now a confirmed entrepreneur, which is to say that formerly theoretical concepts such as cash flow and burn rate are now life-and-death issues to me. In a nutshell, I founded Equilibrio, in 2004, which focuses on developing a mobile application that allows individuals to manage their diet, exercise and medication and share the plans and results with a community of their choosing. Things are moving along, though more slowly than I would like, and we hope to have a prototype available by December — just in time for New Year's resolutions. I am also in the process of raising angel money, so for those who've already made their millions, I'd love to have the conversation."

Yours truly, the Riffman, has enjoyed the summer working with a couple of VC clients and some very promising early-stage companies in energy efficiency, distributed generation and medical devices. You know they're good when you feel like quitting consulting and joining the venture. Eva and I also squeezed in some nice weekend trips including our annual cycle-along and tube down the Potomac, not to mention enduring another upstream canoeing misadventure with Kashif Chaudhry and his non-seafaring dog Betty. However, I must say it was almost worth it for a taste of Kashif's home-brewed ales. The stuff is so good maybe he should quit his day job. And finally, Bill Sharpe informs me that Rick Erwin has joined him as an apprentice unicycle repairman for Cirque de Soleil.