1994 — Full-Time

I hope everyone had a great summer! I received some great updates from classmates and am always on the lookout for more news. Feel free to write or call if you have something to share.

Paul Stratta shares this news: "Recently relocated to Brussels, where I work for Coleman's EMEA business as its brand director of the EMEA region, and commercial director of Europe North. Two roles, one salary. Typical for me! Family is settling well into life on the Continent, after the last four years in the U.K. and Ireland. Just worried now about how often my daughters will tease me in French or Dutch while they race to native fluency, while I struggle."

Greg Norman and wife Margy Stratton '93 had their third daughter just after Thanksgiving in '06, so the Norman girls are now 6 , 4 and 1. They continue to live in Mequon, Wisc., just north of Milwaukee, and are about to move from an 1865 farmhouse to a late 1800s farmhouse that Greg is in the process of renovating. Greg is enjoying running his real estate businesses, Butler-Chase Fine Homebuilders, Peloton Properties and WiRED Construction, but wishes he had time to do more bike races with his cycling team. Margy went back to Briggs & Stratton Corp. after maternity leave, but recently left there to work on starting something of her own and is continuing her work with several local nonprofit organizations.

Nora El Goulli sent a wonderful update. She has spent her career in the pharmaceutical industry, working in London for the past 13 years in both industry and consulting. After spending time with the Wilkerson Group and Deloitte Consulting, Nora was the associate director of worldwide business development for SmithKline Beecham. She then went out on her own and started an independent pharmaceutical business development consultancy, Team Strategy, in 2000. Nora is also passionate about providing essential medicines for the poor in Third World countries. She wrote that 30 percent of the world's population (1.7 billion people) lack access to essential medicines. Nora has been able to combine her extensive work experience and vision to do something about it. Two years ago she took a sabbatical to start a nonprofit organization in Honduras — Medicines for Roatan — to source and provide medication for this small, impoverished area with a population of 60,000.

In Nora's words: "In February 2005, I went on holiday to Roatan, in the Bay Islands of Honduras. I was told that the local hospital suffered drastic shortages of medicines. The hospital pharmacist was keenly motivated to do something, but she was frustrated and disempowered by the public health system. She had no budget, was not allowed to solicit cash donations, had no phone or Internet access to contact suppliers and did not know where to begin to raise funds or procure medicines.

"I found a lot of good will in the local community, which made me think it was possible to put together a viable solution. I took an 18-month sabbatical and secured some grant funding to finance the start-up costs, returned to Roatan and created Medicines for Roatan. The pharmacist is on the board, and she volunteers her weekends to manage procurement. We gave her Internet access and showed her how to procure drugs at cost from international suppliers. The hospital provides us with free, secure storage space in their warehouse. The hospital administrator has learned how to clear meds through customs and picks up the deliveries in his own truck. Our annual budget is $30k this year, and will grow to $60k by the fifth year. For a population of 60,000, we spend an average of $1 per person per year to cover the most basic needs in medicines. I approached the largest local resort and they agreed to help us. Clients are systematically asked at checkout if they want a greeting card, and the proceeds go to Medicines for Roatan. Local community members volunteer to raise funds with an annual jazz event. A local CPA produces audited accounts free of charge, and our lawyer works at cost. There is no public transport between the islands, so we arranged for distribution to the outlying islands by a network of dive operators. It's all about working with what there is.

"We started providing medicines to the hospital in February, and we are on track to cover around 18,000 patients by the end of 2007. By the fifth year, we plan on expanding our operations to all currently untreated patients at six community clinics each year. It's amazing that with some basic project management skills (which most of us have), it was possible to get both government employees and a variety of community members working together in a unique local solution. If anything, this shows how incredibly valuable our ability to identify issues and put together a project can be. Check out the Web site for photos: medicinesforroatan.org. My work in Honduras will be done when Medicines for Roatan is managed entirely by islanders, by 2008 I hope! And after that, my dream is to devote myself full-time to replicating the project in other Third World countries."

En route to the OSU-N.U. game are, from right, Ethan Spencer '94, Pam Heinen Haag WCAS '87, Bill Haag, Taggart Haag, Will Spencer, Emily Spencer and Lydia Spencer.

Kate Kustermann Rivera sent in an update on her wedding to Jose Rivera. "Jose M. Rivera (from Costa Rica) and I officially tied the knot on May 12 in downtown Chicago. We have a crazy Kellogg-centric story, as we were actually in the same class at Kellogg but never met each other the entire two years. We first met at our five-year reunion in May 1999 when we sat next to each other at a Cubs game (we had a great time not watching the game)! We then reconnected at our 10-year reunion in May 2004 and that is when we started our long-distance dating between Chicago and San Juan, Puerto Rico (where he was living/working at the time for Emerson Electric). Fourteen months later, Jose moved to Chicago so we could be together, which has been just great. Jose now has a strategy role with Schneider Electric (Square D), and I continue to work for Deloitte Consulting where I have been the past four years. We had a wonderful wedding with many dear Kellogg friends in attendance, including Nida McPolin, Tim McClelland, Rebecca Swarr '95, Lisa Morrell '95, Stephane Dupuy, Naoko and Takeshi Kasai, Mike and Kate Schoenle, Doug and Sue Warshauer, Richard Goozh, Laura McKee, Patty (Comboy) Spans, Lisa Bradner, Janice and Kevin Lee, Amit Choudhury, Dean '03 and Katja Lindo '04, Chris O'Brien '95, David Garfield, Deborah Valella Smith '99, Maureen McGowan '95, Jeff Bell '96, Michael Musser '96, and Margaret and Steve Di Marco '92. We then topped it off with a fantastic honeymoon and safari in South Africa.

"We are glad to be the poster children for Kellogg reunions, with special thanks to Doug and Sue Warshauer for if they had not recruited me to be on the 10-year reunion committee, Jose and I might not be here today!"