1996 — Full-Time

Nicole Ertas O'Brien had baby boy Colton Quinn O'Brien on Aug. 21. She lives in Chicago with her husband Brendan.

Claudia Lewnowski Joyce is still at the job she accepted after Kellogg. She is at McKinsey in New York where she wrote the book Mobilizing Minds: Creating Wealth from Talent in the 21st Century Organization with a colleague. Claudia has two boys James (4) and Henry (2).

A few Kelloggians took a break from the sweltering summer heat in New York and Florida to help Margaret Pomeroy Hunt usher in her fourth decade on the planet with a weeklong bash on Shelter Island in July. Margaret was in great spirits having just left her job at AFS after many years and starting a project with the Susan G. Komen foundation in Dallas. She is looking forward to some R&R with husband Calvin in Israel in the fall.

Susan Mantel is heading up a lung cancer nonprofit called Joan's Legacy in New York,

Amy Becker is plugging along at AOL also in New York and Pablo Zurzolo is finishing up some consulting work for a Kyoto Accord Carbon Project firm and saving his pennies for a New Year's trip to Antarctica.

Muneaki Nishimura, Masahiro Ozaki, Koichi Matsubara, Emiko Taguchi and Ghen Akiyama, all ’96, enjoying a “TG” event in Tokyo put on by the Kellogg Alumni Club of Japan.
Tom McNulty ’96 and his 5-year-old daughter Megan on a recent visit to San Marcos, Texas
Nancy Roset Miller, Betty Rhiew-Breslin, Ali Miller Giacomin and Kris Kisska Mehigan, all ’96, celebrated their 40th birthdays in Arizona in June.
Susan Mantel, Pablo Zurzolo, Margaret Pomeroy Hunt and Amy Becker, all ’96, celebrating Margaret’s birthday in July

Tim and Catherine Tantoco Daniels have moved. Tim writes with an update: "Toward the end of last year, the opportunity to move to Asia for a few years came up and after a bit of reflection, we decided to go for it. We left London in January, spent some time in Manila while our belongings were on a boat, and then settled in to Kuala Lumpur in March. With economic conditions tightening in London, opportunities in Asia are still looking good. After feeling the need for more space and help with two young kids, we thought that a stint out here in the tropical rainforests might be a good idea for a while. We are closer to all our family in the Philippines. We also just felt like having an adventure in a new part of the world.

"Catherine has taken up the position of marketing director for Malaysia and Singapore for her company Reckitt Benckiser. She is finding the actual content of the job very manageable, but managing a large portfolio business, a big team and a sometimes hectic travel schedule is quite challenging on her time. I had been thinking about leaving Barclays after six years and was able to negotiate a good exit plus six months of paid gardening leave,  which helped with the move a lot. It was great to have a break, spend time with the kids, sort out all of life's overdue paperwork and read a lot of good books. A week after my break ended, I started with Standard Chartered. I am away for three nights a week traveling as I have regional responsibility for performance and business development of the consumer lending businesses, but I am always back home by Thursday night. Kuala Lampur is tropically warm and humid, rains most afternoons, is green, clean and has an impossible-to-understand road system. The food is fab and cheap and frequently blow-your-head-off spicy. There are lots of islands, mountains and jungle resorts to visit. And we have monkeys outside our compound, koi carp in the pond and dragonflies hovering over the pool."

Michelle McKinnon left SIRIUS Satellite Radio in July after spending the last 1 1/2 years of her four years there trying to close the SIRIUS/XM merger (it closed a week later). Her new job is portfolio manager in Honeywell's pension fund covering alternative investments (private equity fund and direct investments). Honeywell is headquartered in Morristown, N.J., just 15 minutes from her home, so she enjoys spending more time with her family, thanks to not having to commute to New York City.

As they say, 40 is the new 30! 4-Qs Ali Miller Giacomin, Betty Rhiew-Breslin, Kris Kisska Mehigan and Nancy Roset Miller met up this June to celebrate their 40th birthdays and enjoy a little R&R at the Phoenecian Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Ali Miller Giacomin lives in Denver with her husband Brian and their three children Aiden (5), Jack (3) and Hannah (3). She is director of product management at Qwest Communications where she develops and manages products for business markets. This July, Ali rode her bike 167 miles to raise donations for Children's Hospital.

Nancy Miller lives in the Bay Area with her husband John Miller and their two children Dylan (4) and Hailey (1). She is a consultant-special projects at Oodle.com (an Internet competitor to Craigslist) and head of strategy of the Miller family. Friends think that, should Nancy ever consider a career change, she should be a food critic for the Zagat restaurant guide.

Kris Kisska Mehigan lives in Richmond, Va., with husband D.J. Mehigan and their three children, Elyse (7), Maya (5) and Bryce (2). She owns promotional products company Signature Promotions LLC. Kris had so much fun as the "adopted" member of the Kellogg Latino Club that she took up flamenco dancing in her free time.

Betty Rhiew-Breslin, who is still relishing her days as a 30-something, lives in New Jersey with husband Mike and their two children Matthew (7) and Amanda (4). She works at Novartis doing pharmaceutical marketing on Exforge. In her free time, Betty enjoys riding her thoroughbred Finnegan and baking homemade birthday cakes for her children. They're all looking forward to catching up with everyone at the next Reunion!

Tom McNulty recently moved into the complex valuation services area of Sirius Solutions in Houston. The energy markets are buzzing with a great deal of activity, and he works with clients to assist them with derivatives and energy asset valuations, risk management and proper financial statement presentation.

Timur Colak and his wife Susana have been in Miami for 10 years. Ronan (4) and Mateo (2) have decorated their home using only the finest skin care products, permanent markers and assorted colors of melted popsicles. Timur ditched consulting and bought a sign manufacturing business in 2007 because, in his words, traveling sucks. Now that he is no longer bound by the propriety of being in professional services, Timur has no problem with shameless self-promotion. Anyone opening a large retail store or developing a sizeable shopping center in South Florida and in need of high-quality storefront signage, give him a shout at timur@moderndisplay.net.

Ghen Akiyama writes: "The tradition of TG continues, even in Japan. The monthly event, held at the Lawry's restaurant in Tokyo, is open to all alumni as well as prospective students. The latest effort by the alumni club is to designate certain months to specific graduating years (e.g., June to those who graduated in ''06' years), so the June event was especially well attended by our class, with Terry Nakatsuka, Muneaki Nishimura, Akira Masunaga, Emiko Taguchi, Yayoi Orii (all the way from San Diego), Masahiro Ozaki, Koichi Matsubara and myself, all seen swirling drinks as if we were back at the Keg. If any Japan-based or visiting alumni wish to attend, be sure to contact the Kellogg Alumni Club of Japan at kelloggalumni.jp to find the dates."