1994

Hello everyone. Thanks to Yuko Suzuki, our class has a column! Just days before the news was due, Yuko sent me an email chock full of information about our class. From Yuko's news, it is apparent that I maybe should consider relocating to the Bay Area in order to keep up on our class. That or turn over the reins to someone who lives there where at least half our class apparently lives.

Leading with Yuko's own update Š she is the president of her own firm, Suzuki-Marketing Incorporated (suzukimarketing.com). Yuko and Nora El Gouilli recently traveled to Tunisia — their 12th annual vacation since Kellogg! Nora lives in London, has her own consulting company and is involved in humanitarian projects in Honduras. Last year Yuko traveled to Tokyo for business and had a mini reunion at Tom Gottsman's house with Hiroshi Chino, Toshi Iseki, Takeshi Ito and Masa Nishiyama. They all live in Tokyo and Yuko reports that they are well. Other news from our Japanese classmates: Jun Kawakami is the general manager of GE in Tokyo and Masako Maeda is the vice mayor of Yokohama.

Yuko gets out a lot! She recently bumped into Jim Schorr, Bill Brown and David Moore at the Union Square Starbucks and has also caught up with Susan Pommer. Yuko is planning a baby shower for new dad Jay Grant, and also reported that Samira Parekh-Jones has a baby daughter, Juliana, and lives in Menlo Park. Karen (Jones) Mak had a Halloween party last year attended by a number of Kellogg classmates, including John Moriarty, his wife, Mary, and their two children. John works for AG Edwards and is now living, obviously, in the Bay Area. Ann (Gnuse) Diedrich and her husband joined Yuko for a wine-tasting trip to Sonoma recently. Ann works for Intuit.

TJ Singh lives in Half Moon Bay, Calif., but commutes to New York City. Amit Choudhury is also living in San Francisco. Chris Balough was married on June 30, in Hawaii. He and his wife, Roberta, had a reception in Palo Alto in July, joined by classmates Bruno Larvol, Ann (Gnuse) Diedrich, Amit Choudhury, Chris Marolf, Kate Kustermann, Samira Parekh-Jones, Karen (Jones) Mak, Jose Maria Rivera-Willeke, Don Johnston and Yuko Suzuki.

Yuko sent news of a number of relocations. Paul Lehman lives in Seattle; Don Johnston and his wife left San Francisco for New York at the beginning of the year; and Sheldon Chang moved from Hong Kong to Connecticut and works for UBS. Vina Shih lives in Hong Kong and has a baby girl.

Elizabeth Lee is now marketing director at J&J in London. Jeff Marsh lives in Chicago and runs his own marketing consulting business. Susie Silver joined Merisant as the director of North American marketing for the Equal brand. After spending the better part of last year traveling all over the world, Susie is settling in for a short three-mile commute from her home in Lincoln Park. Also in "Chicagoland," Mike and Lisa (Foltz) Axelrod made the move down the road from Evanston to Wilmette over Memorial Day weekend.

In the spring, I got together with Patty Ricciardelli Sins and Connie Gute Walsh for dinner. Patty and her husband, Jack, added a second little boy to their family on July 13. Nathan Louis joins big sis Whitney and big brother Cameron at home in Weston, Mass. Patty is working for the Boston Globe. Connie is with Staples and is the brand manager for their branded technology, including ink, shredders, etc. Over July 4th, Connie and I initiated our kids to the idea of camping. We went for a few days to a great campground in Hermit Island, Maine.

That's all I have! Would love to hear from the rest of you who either do not live in the Bay Area, or who do live in the Bay Area but were not mentioned this time! If you have never sent in word of what you are doing, or have never appeared in this column, take a minute to let us know how and where you are and what you are up to!