EMP-55

Kathleen Burandt got a promotion when her company — USA Bluebook — was recently bought out by Home Depot. Kathleen is now a vice president. Way to go! Kathleen and her husband just celebrated their 20-year wedding anniversary with a trip to Aruba. Congratulations to Kathleen and Jeff! We're all happy that life is going so well both personally and professionally for Kathleen! We celebrated her success when she hosted the EMP-55 women at her lovely home this summer for a delicious lasagna dinner.

Eleanor Chou reports that she recently bought a wonderful grand piano. She says that the sound of the piano is so beautiful and graceful. She loves it and now needs to stay home so she can play it and enjoy it!

	Visit to D.C.: Sharon Folliard, Shari Litow and Julie Einstein (all EMP-55)
	Bill Daley EMP-55 with his new daughter Stella!
	Frank Muscarello EMP-55 and his new son, Frank Muscarello Jr.
	Amy Kovalan EMP-55 and Tracey Quinn's EMP-55 shower

Maybe Jim Falvey needs a piano player for his new band? So far, it's a drummer, guitar and Jim on bass. They've worked up about 20 fun party tunes, but don't have a band name yet. Jim says that if any of you can suggest a name that they end up keeping, then they'll let you sing with them (or, perhaps they'll offer a cash reward of sorts.) Any EMP-55 classmates looking to name Jim's band and perhaps sing a few songs? (Can any of you sing?) Jim, be sure to keep us noted on the date, time and location for your next gig!

Jim also celebrated his 40th birthday this summer. Happy birthday to Jim!

Bill Daley and his wife Aimee have a beautiful new daughter named Stella. Congrats on such a beautiful little girl! Shari Litow and I paid a visit to Bill in D.C. so we could meet Stella. While in the area, we also stopped by to see our EMP-53 friend Julie Einstein.

Sharon Folliard (me) and Cristina Gomez went on the Kellogg GIM trip to Asia in March. Bernie Birt, Julie Jones and Professor Rich Honack did a wonderful job of organizing great speakers and tours of facilities in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing. It was a fabulous learning experience and we made lots of new friends from EMP-53, 54, 59, 60 and 61! We also got to see some old friends from EMP-53 Michael Wu and Raymond Ye.

Susan Forsell took a three-month sabbatical from McDonald's. She is using the time to travel and she's taken trips to France, Los Angeles and Beaver Creek so far. Susan, we're jealous and can't wait to hear more about your travels!

Roy George and his fiancé, Dani, just bought a new home in San Francisco. They're still recovering from the sticker shock and high price of real estate in the city of San Francisco!

Cristina Gomez got a big promotion at Otto & Sons. Cristina will now be responsible for plants in Illinois and Utah. Martin Arron is already trying to figure out how we can use Cristina's corporate housing in Utah for an EMP-55 ski trip. Congratulations to Cristina!

Dean Hart reports that Takeda is enjoying explosive growth due to the incredible opportunity of launching four new products in a year. These new products have caused growth in virtually every department within the organization — the sales force will have gone from 1,250 representatives in January 2005 to more than 2,000 in January 2006. Takeda's flagship product passed the $2 billion mark in 2004 and is expected to grow more than 15 percent this year. Dean says it's pretty cool, pretty fun and pretty scary!

Lilia Kiselev has taken over more responsibilities at Abbott and now has a larger group reporting to her.

Tim Koers and is wife, Tresee, have a new son! Daniel Scott Koers was born at 10:38 p.m. on July 20. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces and is 21 inches long. Tim reports that Daniel and Tresee are doing very well. Their son Spencer is enjoying being a big brother. Congrats to the Koers family on their newest addition!

Amy Kovalan and Tracey Quinn were guests of honor at a combined shower held in Oak Park and hosted by the women of EMP-55. It was a nice evening to take a break from wedding planning and spend time with girlfriends! (See picture on left page. Doesn't Amy look lovely in that tiara?)

Sharon's shower at the spa. Back: Amy Kovalan, Tracey Quinn and Cristina Gomez. Front: Lilia Kiselev, Sharon Folliard, Leah Campen Klepitsch, Kim Wrobleski (all EMP-55)

Steve Krucko and Kim Wrobleski organized the Kellogg golf outing in August at Seven Bridges Golf Club in Woodridge. Kim won the women's longest drive award and also presented awards to all winners. Kim, Steve and their team placed second in scoring. Lilia Kiselev and Chander Chawla also attended and reported that they didn't win any prizes but certainly had fun! All had a great time. Thanks to Kim and Steve for organizing!

Paul Laskowske joined Gurtz Electric Company, a family-owned electrical contractor working primarily in the Chicago metropolitan area. Paul's title at Gurtz will be COO and his office will be in Arlington Heights. Gurtz was recently awarded the electrical contract for Takeda's new office building in Deerfield. Paul says he'll see to it that Dean Hart stays wired for many years to comeŠHa!

Shawn McComb received a promotion and is now on the senior management team of a new division that's being created at Deere. Congrats to Shawn and we look forward to hearing the details of the new position!

Pablo Moray and his wife, Mariela, recently relocated their family to South Florida. Pablo still works with Motorola. He says to look him up if any of us travel to the Fort Lauderdale area. Maybe we'll all come visit in JanuaryŠ

Frank Muscarello reports, "We have a baby!" Frank Dominic Muscarello Jr. was born April 14, at 8 pounds, 15 ounces and 22 and a half inches. See the very cute picture in this issue. Congrats to Frank and his wife!

Wayne Sottile has a new job at Siemens Corporation in Buffalo Grove, Ill. He also has a new apartment in Vernon Hills, Ill. in the same building as Jeff Nixon! What a small Kellogg world! (When's the party, Wayne and Jeff?)

Mark Straszynski and his new wife, Robin Haldeman, recently purchased a new home. They'll continue to live in Chicago's Old Town area. Mark also reports that he's headed to China and plans to socialize with Michael Wu during his visit. Michael and Raymond Ye certainly are great hosts to all of us Kellogians traveling to China!

Tony Tedeschi reports that his new company, Sibery Group, has grown and is in the process of acquiring a 50 percent interest in a physician billing/electronic medical records company, Idilus. Tony says he's still very busy and having lots of fun! His wife, DeeDee, and kids are doing well.

Kim Wrobleski hosted a bridal shower for me, Sharon Folliard, at Mario Tricocci Spa this past June. It was a relaxing, perfect afternoon for everyone. Kim was a great hostess for all that attended. Thanks to Kim for a great afternoon!

Michael Wu has a new job with Xilinx, a semiconductor company based in Silicon Valley, as regional GM and marketing director of a new product division. His new office will be still in Shanghai, China but he will commute a lot between China and San Jose.

Michael joined the recent China GIM trip for dinner in Shanghai. I hear Michael has also hosted Mark Straszynski in Shangai again. I think maybe Michael sees us more now than he did while living in the Chicago area!

Raymond Ye toured the entire Kellogg EMP group through his Shanghai Johnson facility during our GIM trip. It was very impressive to learn about the success Raymond is having with the new products he's developing and marketing in China. Thanks for the hospitality Raymond!