EMP-63 and their spouses assembled at the home of 63er Beth Eckenrode during the class's four-month reunion in Pittsburg. Pictured are: Mikenzie Steffens and Deniz Sari, Abdo Abdo, Steve Azzarello, Jason Childers, Russell Cravey, Paul Del Gallo, Bill Dirkes and Marifran, Kinesh Doshi and Preeti, Beth Eckenrode and Tim, Maureen Floeter, Paul Futrell, Andrew Gillen, Peter Granat, Roger Gregory, Clem Johnson, Kim Jude, Jim Lott, Tim Mahoney, Rafiq Mohammadi, Pradeep Nair, Kevin O'Shaughnessey and Christina, Ronnie Razmi, Ken Sandifer, David Seematter, Dan Skinner, Mikenzie Steffens and Deniz, Brian Tilley, Hans van Wees and Srini.

EMP-63

Beth Eckenrode EMP-63 feigns amusement as she ponders why Paul Del Gallo EMP-63 is wearing purple linen well after Labor Day.

Steve Azarello EMP-63 admires fellow 63er Paul Futrell's patriotism.

Gustavo Coronel has been promoted to director of distribution channels at Motorola. In his new role, Gustavo will lead the definition and execution of the worldwide distribution channel fulfillment by engaging carriers, distributors and retails to the Motorola management inventory platform. Gustavo has been at Motorola for 10 years. In September, Gustavo became an American citizen, which greatly improved America.

Polo Quintano became the head of marketing in a local bank in Chile in August. Banco Credichile is focused on personal loans. So far, it has been a great experience to move from finance to marketing. His wife Alejandra will continue working for Kellogg in Miami. She will be traveling often, spending three weeks in Chile and one week in Miami. This opportunity involved Polo relocating home, which greatly improved Chile.

Jason Childers, Andrew Gillen, Ken Sandifer, Paul Del Gallo, Roger Gregory, Jim Lott, Tim Mahoney, Pradep Nair, and Steve Azarello enjoy a drink and a laugh.

Abdo Abdo has accepted a new position at IBM. He joined the mergers and acquisition team in IBM's corporate development division and will move to corporate headquarters in New York. This position is so exciting that it was actually able to move Abdo out of Minnesota in October. This was no small feat given Abdo's love of the long flat frozen tundra season, which is fast approaching in Minnesota.

Sandeep Laroia has accepted a consulting position with ZS Associates (Princeton office). ZS offers sales and marketing consulting to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. It was founded by two Kellogg professors (Zoltners and Sinha) some 30 years ago. This will provide Sandeep the opportunity to network and use his Kellogg skills.

Yan Chang made an internal move at Discover Card in August to be in charge of credit acquisition. His main responsibility is to decide who the company needs to solicit, who it approves new cards, and how much credit to extend. He is also responsible for credit bureau management. It's a nice move for Yan. This job will broaden his coverage of credit lifecycle and position well for the future. All those who are hoping to call for an emergency line of credit for your current spending spree are encouraged to apply through the 1-800 number, not Yan's office line.

Kim Jude has taken the position of director of sales finance at Quaker-Tropicana-Gatorade, a division of PepsiCo. This role includes planning and forecasting $3 billion in sales and all trade promotions. The position has a staff of 25. She would like to point out that discounts on oatmeal, sports drinks and related products are for the supply chain and regular customers, not those who claim to have helped her finish marketing papers.

James Park has accepted a position with Samsung Venture American in San Jose, Calif. In this new position as a principal [investor], he will be focusing on finding investment opportunities for Samsung in both telecom and digital media service and technology companies. He is a bit nervous about using a spreadsheet for a living, but at last count he had most of the mobile numbers of EMP-63ers and can reach out as necessary. James hopes to make the bay area his new home and become a neighbor to Wiener Mondesir. Wiener has offered no comment.

In September Charles Thompson, Chris Bernauer, James Park, Mike McClain and Ken Sandifer got together at Dallas's Del-Frisco's steak house. Chris was in town for a Harley Davidson promotional event. The group discussed market positioning and segmentation, the size and growth paradox, rankings and work/life balance. Cigars and cocktails followed. Anyone who believes those were the actual topics discussed need only consult those in attendance or any of the marketing professors who could never get them to discuss these topics in class much less socially.

The EMP-63 Houston contingent — Roger Gregory, Jason Allen, Sumit Mathur and Nikolaj Sjoqvist — had an unofficial get-together in September. They went to a baseball game (Cincinnati vs. Houston) at Minute Maid Park in Houston. They claim they don't remember who won, but it was great to catch up. They've decided they're going to meet once a month from this point forward (exact timing TBD). Interested EMP-63ers are of course welcome to join them provided they can sing "God Bless Texas" in its entirety, unaccompanied. You get your first five visits free of this requirement.

Jim Lott and Paul Del Gallo and their wives Trish and Heather caught up in Washington, D.C., over dinner at a Tapas restaurant. While not Evanston's Stained Glass, the wine was of good quality, as was the sangria. The restaurant had an additional wine shop included, which proved to be a bad idea. Peter Granat and Paul Del Gallo and their wives Marta and Heather got together in Massachusetts for dinner. Peter and Marta met in Boston and love to come back to see New England, trying to remember where you can really take out a boat and what mountains look like in the background. Paul is also attending the Boston Kellogg Alumni cocktail party the first Tuesday of every month in Boston. If anyone is ever in town on those dates, please let him know.

Glen Leland, Chris Brogan and Ronnie Razmi got together in Las Vegas in September. Ronnie was lecturing on applications of high-speed computer tomography in the management of cardiovascular disease and Glen was attending. Chris cannot even say "high-speed computer tomography" three times fast, but lives in the area, so was available to join in later for social time. They met with a finance source for the project Ronnie is considering. After an evening together, they discussed changing the focus of the project to something less technical.

Glen Leland has also landed a consulting gig that will place him in Chicago two days every couple of weeks. He is fresh off his visit to Ireland, the ninth country he has visited in the last year. He has repeatedly denied rumors he is simply following the Rolling Stones around the globe.

Mikenzie Steffens is now a senior vice president and human resources executive at Bank of America. She is the HR partner for their global corporate and investment banking CFO organization and is also supporting the firm's corporate controller and accounting organization and corporate investments finance organization. While this role is difficult, it pales in comparison to keeping the egos and personalities of EMP-63 in check over the last two years.

Jon Baksht has taken a position working for Goldman Sachs in the investment banking division in Houston as part of the natural resources practice. He's primarily focused on M&A advisory to clients in the energy industry. This has led him back to every note he ever took in finance class and he is keeping the professors on speed dial. They are right under "all-night Chinese take-out" and "No-Doz delivery service." He moved his family to Houston over Labor Day, greatly improving Houston.

Jon Pryor: After six years as chair of urology at the University of Minnesota, 17 years as a faculty member and 27 years in medicine (that is nearly more years than some of EMP-63ers have been alive), Jon is giving up all the surgery, patients and medical school administrating to enter consulting. Jon accepted a position at McKinsey and Co. in New Jersey. Jon will consult with payers, providers, and pharmaceutical and device companies around the world. He says he feels like a kid in a candy shop, which explains how long it has been since he has been a kid in a candy shop. Though his base will be in New Jersey, he will keep his home in Minneapolis.

Greer O'Brian is the new executive director for the Delnor Community Health and Wellness Center in Geneva, Ill. She will be responsible for overseeing and developing programming, medical integration, marketing, operations, fiscal control and member customer service standards for the center.

Greer was also fortunate enough to attend her first Kellogg Executive Women's Network event at the Allen Center on Sept. 27 and found it beneficial from a networking perspective. She says she enjoyed the evening's presentation by Professor Leigh Thompson on "Emotional Intelligence and Happiness."

Mikenzie Steffens, Ann-Marie Waryans, Kim Jude and Michele Azar visited Las Vegas for a more limited Kellogg Executive Women's unofficial, improvised weekend away. They attended a Shakira concert and spent time poolside. Rumors that winnings from the tables exceeded the costs of the weekend are greatly exaggerated.

Tim Mahoney, Paul Del Gallo and Jeff Alpaugh (EMP-64) caught up at an Irish Pub called Rosemary Maguillicutty's in New York (at the corner of 47th and Madison) in late September. They proceeded to call Anand Subramanian repeatedly, who did not believe Bostonians Paul and Jeff were on 47th. On the third call, Anand explained that in the future he should be told in advance of the outing so he could be available. No promises were made.

Nikolaj Sjoqvist accepted a position with McKinsey's marketing and sales practice in August, and will be relocating to Atlanta in 2007. He will not be starting until January, but stopped working at HP about the time he accepted the offer (in the interest of rest and relaxation). He looks forward to Atlanta but will always miss the Republic of Texas, to which he is the Danish Ambassador.

Ellen Seibenborn-Forsyth had a baby girl September 27. Maddison Marie Forsyth was born weighing 7 lbs., 14 oz., and measuring 21 inches. Mother, daughter and Matt are all doing well.

David Seematter married Hillary Hoffman on July 9. In attendance were Charles Thompson and Paul Del Gallo. David met Hillary on his flights from Kansas City to Chicago for the EMP program. Hillary is, of course, a doctor, but David is not in pharmaceuticals, for the last time. He just couldn't hear the professor. He was in the back row, for goodness sake.

Alfonso Cantalapiedra has made an internal move at Starboard Cruise Services. His new position, general manager of strategic planning and business development, is a promotion and a move back into the finance and transactional world. Canta denies any correlation between this and the 2005 EMP-63 cruise, however, he did note buying trends on that cruise spiked toward fruity drinks and cheap souvenirs.

Julian Wiles is now responsible for all of SC Johnson's North America distribution and the internal warehouse at their largest manufacturing facility. He and his team work directly with Exel Logistics. Exel has more than 300 people working on the SC Johnson account. Julian exhausted his inventory of free giveaways at presentations during the MBA program. Julian has not determined who he will be rooting for this year in NCAA football, but claims he will not switch three times during the season depending the standings. There is some doubt on this and he has been sent a hat with school names that can be attached with Velcro.

Sincere thanks from all of EMP-63 to our Pittsburgh hosts and their families for organizing an outstanding inaugural reunion!