1994 — Full-Time

Attention Class of 1994: If you are interested in learning more about your 15-year Reunion, please contact Katie Taylor at 847.491.3348 or katie-taylor@kellogg.northwestern.edu.

By the time you are reading this, our 15-year Reunion will be about six months away. Check your schedule and mark your calendar for  May 1-3. A reunion committee has formed and if you are interested in helping out, please let me or Kellogg know. One thing we all can do in advance of Reunion (whether or not you are able to make it) is to update our information in the alumni database. You can do so by going to alumni.kellogg.northwestern.edu and clicking on "profile update."

Now for some news . . .

Bruno Larvol wrote that he and his wife Wan Chi are enjoying being parents. Their son Bradlen entered his terrible twos last spring. Perhaps by this time he is starting to emerge? Bruno said that business is good and the company he started provides various services including competitive intelligence to the pharmaceutical and life science industries. They have 45 professionals, many of them in India and the Philippines.

I see Richard Goozh, Chris Balough, Yuko Suzuki, TJ Singh, Ann (Gnuse) Diederich and Amit Choudhury regularly and Paul Lehman when he is visiting from Seattle.

Also in California, Richard Goozh wrote that he had a great summer, including a weekend with Karen Mak and her family in Monterey, Calif. Richard also included details of Lou Ponticas's wedding to Elle Stavroudis. Lou and Elle were married at the Oakland Greek Orthodox Church on June 8. They honeymooned in Greece (naturally) and spent three weeks sleeping on beaches, visiting both of their families and drinking ouzo. Shortly after returning, Lou was deployed for his third tour of duty and will be stationed near Tikrit, Iraq, for the next year.

Betsy and Bill Schmitt and Karen Mak also attended Lou's wedding. Karen also took her kids to Beijing for the Olympics!

Last Christmastime, I ran into Tim McDonald's wife Kelley at a Starbucks just up the road from Kellogg. She was visiting family and caught me up on their life. Tim later e-mailed with news of the chaos and fun in his house. He and Kelley live with their five kids in Bernardsville, N.J. (Bill McIlwain's hometown). Their son William (12) is entering seventh grade, daughter Maggie (7) is in first grade and loves to play mother to her three younger brothers – twins Jack and Finn (4) and Angus (2  ). Tim said that he, Kelley and William are very tuned into the election and Tim took William to the New Hampshire primary where they met Sens. McCain and Obama. Tim left Merrill Lynch in June and is relieved to be out of the madness of Wall Street. He is currently working with several institutional investors to identify opportunities in the global wireless markets. Tim and Kelley recently visited with Alex Olabarria and his wife Christina in Barcelona, Spain, and also stays in touch with MB Barron, John Lambros and Dan Sheeran.

Ron Sann wrote that he and his wife Jennifer live just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in a town called Belvedere. They have a son Alex (9) and a daughter Ashley (6). The Sanns keep busy with the kids' activities, including soccer (Ron coaches), basketball and chess. Ron writes: "I am very lucky that my kids and wife are all well and happy. Professionally I run a real estate investment firm (Ratel Investments). We have a $400 million portfolio with about 2,500 apartments." Ron noted that thus far, the apartment market has weathered the economic downturn.

Patrick Griffin lives in Austin, Texas, and has worked for Dell since 2004. He is director of marketing for consumer laptops. Patrick and his wife Kristin are the parents of three children, Aaron, Kate and new baby Owen Joseph, who was born Feb. 18. Owen was a surprise miracle that blessed the family after the tragic loss of their daughter Kate who died suddenly from heart failure in June of 2007 at age 4.

Their family is doing well and continues to celebrate Kate's life with strong support from family, friends and community.

Scott Peterson and his wife Katie welcomed daughter Margaret Elisabeth on Leap Day (Feb. 29). The three are living in London where Scott is with Revlon.

Callie Gute Walsh will celebrate her first birthday Nov. 28 with parents Connie (Gute) and Jeff Walsh and big sisters Katie and Abi. The Walshes's home is in Wellesley, Mass., where Connie is director of brand management for Staples Brands Group.

A bit of scoop from the newswires: Peter Korda was promoted to SVP of the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. In this position, Peter is responsible for Scotts LawnService business. Perhaps he'd like to use my lawn as a test case for the service, a sort of extreme makeover for lawns if you will… Sherif Mityas is the COO of Movie Gallery Inc. The Alabama-based company is the second largest video rental company in North America. Sherif was previously a partner at A.T. Kearney. Lanny Thorndike is the CIO of Century Capital Management, which was named as the seventh advisor to the $11 billion Vanguard Explorer Fund. Lanny will serve as portfolio manager. Brad Lich was named vice president and general manager of CASPI (Coatings, Adhesives, Specialty Polymers and Inks) at Eastman Chemical Company. He was formerly vice president of global marketing. Fellow 4-Quarter Brian Pope was promoted to COO of Virgin Charter, a private air charter company based in Santa Monica, Calif. He previously served as CMO.

That is it for now. It would be fun to hear how you've spent the last 15 years, or just the last one or two! Send in whatever you've got and would like to share, how you are and what you are up to!