| 1992
— Full-Time
Allyson and Carter Cast had a baby (Glen) a year ago. Carter updates: "We now live in Omaha, Neb., on steak. Allyson works for one of the state Supreme Court justices and I serve hot dogs out of a cart beneath her building." In Carter's spare time, he runs an Internet company called hayneedle.com, an e-tailer of home and lifestyle products, which is privately held by venture capitalists. He adds that when Kellogg friends visit Omaha, their family would love to host them and they have plenty of room, unlike in San Francisco.
Moving from an ex-Wal-Mart hotshot to a current one, Joe Hartsig relocated to Bentonville, Ark. He is the vice president of merchandising for the consumer electronics business at the Sam's Club division. Joe writes: "My wife Kathy and our three children (Lilly, 10, Peter, 8, and Bobby, 6) are doing well, adjusting to the South and warmer weather. Thankfully, my golf game has finally rebounded some after a long downward spiral and I no longer ring up hundreds of thousands of flier miles each year. Let me know if you happen to be in town paying Wal-Mart a visit."
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Gerard Beenen’92 and family visiting the Grand Canyon |
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Paul Mistor ’92 and son Luke and daughter Vivenne |
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Jim Neary ’92 and family at Cape Cod |
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Kenichi Okui visited New York from Tokyo and updated me on his life. He says: "After working for several companies such as Booz Allen and GE, I returned to Mitsui & Co. Ltd. I am a project managerin the chemical business unit. Mitsui invested some companies in the U.S., including in solar power, so I occasionally visit the U.S. I hope to see some of you during one of my visits. My older son is in high school playing tennis and my younger son is in junior high and plays rugby."
Fred Christensen has been in Bend, Ore., for nearly five years and loves it. Fortunately, he is at IBM, where 40 percent of U.S. employees can work remotely. He says: "Given that I married late, my objectives are to enjoy life with my wife and two kids before falling off my rocker. Every day as I wake up in the Cascade Mountains, I thank my lucky stars. If anyone wants to know more about the part of Oregon where it doesn't rain 60 percent of the year and where triathlons, trail running and fly fishing rule, then drop me a line at fchristensen@bendbroadband.com."
Bill Sharpe reports that after 12 years at Goldsmith Agio Helms/Lazard, he went into retirement mode in September. He writes: "I am joining some former colleagues at a firm called Itasca Partners and will be doing investment banking work primarily in the sub $100mm zone — but it means no more moonlighting as a unicycle repairman." Bill is also active on the Board of YMCAs of Minnesota. He also said that John Sherlock is running amok somewhere in Michigan after seeing his photo at the post office.
Continuing an annual tradition, Barry Fougere, Al Weggeman, Charles Meyers, Greg Santoro, Kevin Lee, Jamie Crouthamel, Sean Conlin and Phil Tan reunited for a long weekend of golf, poker, great eats, assorted beverages and tall tales at Cape Cod this year. Destinations from past years include Hilton Head, Kohler, Amelia Island, Keowee, Pinehurst, Scottsdale, Napa, Cancun and Tijuana. Scott Allan was sorely missed this year (jet-setting to Australia to rescue an errant subsidiary), but the crew looks forward to his return (and taking his money) in 2010. Jamie and Greg continue to exhibit exceptional shotmaking while the rest of the 'golfers' are still in a multi-decade funk."
Chris McKee provides his once-a-decade update: "Janel and I have crossed a milestone. We no longer have four teenagers, as our oldest daughter just turned 20 (yes, the 1-year old girl who accompanied us to Evanston in 1990). I'm still with the family business, McKee Foods, as EVP of marketing and sales. We live near Chattanooga, Tenn., and the family is doing well. McKee just launched a Little Debbie Chocolate Cupcake with a fully integrated marketing plan, and the product is exceeding all expectations (OK, two weeks is a bit early for an assessment). The business is going well as it appears that people like to eat regardless of economic events. I've taken up triathlons as a humanitarian effort. My performance creates an ego boost for the 50 percent in my age group that finish ahead of me. My advice to graduates — 'Tis better to be a baker than a banker.'"
Ruthanne and Gary Zentner live in south Florida with son Jackson (2). Gary writes: "I'm still scouring the market for distressed real estate deals. I visited Chicago in late June to golf with Jamie Crouthamel in the Butler National member-guest tournament. We won our flight, which won us some crystal, and we made it to the final five teams in the shootout."
Bob Wise writes: "My son Matthew is a sophomore at Northwestern, majoring in engineering. He's aiming for a double major in manufacturing and design/industrial engineering. He was invited last year into the Murphy Scholars, the engineering scholars program. He loves NU, and we're very pleased to have him attend a school so near and dear to us. Last year we visited briefly with Tom Weiser during freshman orientation week. It was good to catch up with him."
Eun and Gerard Surfin' Bean Beenen and children Matthew and Hannah completed their move from Pittsburgh to SoCal, where Gerard is a management faculty member at California State U. Fullerton (CSUF). He says: "I enjoy teaching two sections of upper-division organizational behavior for undergrads. Despite tough times in California, CSUF just opened a new b-school building, so the facilities are nice. It's great having a full-time job that only requires me to be 'in the office' about 14 hours a week, nine months per year. Yes, teaching prep, research and consulting give me plenty to do, but I can do those things from home (when the surf isn't up). Speaking of consulting, should anyone need advice on employee surveys, data analysis, leadership development, or help with organizational change, feel free to contact me."
Jim Neary and family just returned from their annual family vacation in Cape Cod. Jim says that "life is a whirlwind of work (at Warburg Pincus), soccer practice, voice recitals, work, ski team, homework, school board, ice skating and work. We love living in New York City. The kids are thriving at school and the short commute keeps me at home more often."
Luis José Garreaud reports that life in Chile is good: "I was asked to join the Latin American Kellogg Advisory Council, which met November in Mexico for the first time. The original KAC was split into four regions (USA/Canada, Europe, Asia and LatAm). I hope it will be a good platform to stay in touch with Kellogg and help ensure a more global perspective. With winter and skiing coming to an end here, it's time to hit the links."
Denise Glassman and family finished a backroads trip to Montana (Glacier National Park) and Alberta (Waterton National Park) in August. There were several families on the trip, including, by pure coincidence, Seth Bergstein and his family. Who'd a thunk that Seth traveled by means other than stretch limo or helicopter? Denise still gets together every year for a girls' weekend with Donna Jensen, Kate Brew, Yolanda Macias, Leslie Gordon and Lori Siegel. This year, the group went on an adventure to Washington, D.C., and met up with Kai Robertson.
Meanwhile, Seth tells us that he's "married to Alex, has three great kids and lives happily in Greenwich, Conn." He says: "Family life is the usual deluge of homework, hockey/lacrosse/skiing golf/surfing and guitar and drums. I lead the global services group in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, where I am coming up on 20 years, and still travel heavily. Alex spends time on environmental issues related to children's health. I try to see old friends like Jeff Sacher and Brad Hafer when in Boston and Andy Savarie when in Chicago."
Last summer Mark Riodan and family moved to Coppet, Switzerland (a Geneva suburb) when he became the CFO of Novartis' European O-t-C drug business. Bernie Armstrong also reports from Geneva: "We just returned from a relaxing month in Brittany where the whole family took up surfing. In July, we also enjoyed having an extended visit from Mike '93 and Kal Denzel, along with their daughter Maya and son Jack. Their visit took us to many places, such as the Mer de Glace glacier at Chamonix."
Janet and Paul Mistor welcomed Vivienne Grace into the world on Sept. 9. Paul writes: "A southpaw, in blue trunks, and weighing in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces, and both daughter and mother are doing great. Her big brother Luke is very excited to see his new little sister and wants to grab her a little more than mom and dad are willing to let him do right now."
Notorious Chicago Internet entrepreneur Al Warms has unveiled his latest venture, Appolicious, a start-up aimed at encouraging discovery and social networking in the Apple iPhone mobile apps market.
Vinita Gupta, group president and CEO of Lupin Pharma, was included in an article about young women with management degrees who are changing the way traditional Indian family businesses are run. Jeffrey Blade, who was previously interim president of The Steak 'N Shake Co., was appointed CFO of Central Garden & Pet Company. Jeffrey Conlon, president of Kaplan Higher Education, was appointed to CEO. Michael Cochrane, previously managing director and head of the U.S. telecom and technology group at Oppenheimer & Co., was hired to lead the M&A advisory practice at New York-based advisory and banking firm Duff & Phelps Corp.
Cleantech Chronicles: Mark Goodman sends a shout-out to all the First Scholars with whom he's lost touch. Mark writes: "I live and work in Cambridge, Mass., and am married with two kids. I'm busy fundraising for my early-stage clean energy technology venture capital fund and looking at a lot of deals. Cleantech business plans are welcomed at mgoodman@CleanEnergyVG.com. In September, at the East Coast Cleantech Forum in Boston, we had Groom Energy CEO, Jon 'no socks' Guerster, as a panelist with a couple of other cleantech big shots."
Clearly, The Riffman is no longer the lone wolf from our class in the cleantech arena. Our club is growing and the field certainly needs Kellogg talent. Among others, our members include Bernardo Llovera, a managing partner at cleantech VC firm Expansion Capital; Vince Arnone, who was CFO at Fueltech; Brad Hafer, who just finished his NCEC fellowship and is now looking for a leadership gig with an emerging cleantech biz; Shez Bandukwala, who does cleantech I-banking at Think Equity; Pat Burns, who was at Trex and now is at Danaher; Patrick Kelly, who is CEO of Elevance Renewable Sciences; Rob Delong, who mentors cleantech start-ups as part of the Environmental Business Cluster incubator in San Jose; and now yours truly, will get Tom Wieser to join as well.
Speaking of joining, I have joined the NUvention Energy Advisory Board. As part of the Institute for Sustainability at Northwestern, NUvention Energy (isen.northwestern.edu/Research/FundedStudentProject.aspx) will join faculty and graduate students from Northwestern's graduate schools (e.g., engineering, business and law) with researchers from Argonne National Labs and other university labs to collaborate on R&D, including offering hands-on educational opportunities for multidisciplinary teams of students. I am excited to contribute my passion and 20-plus years of cleantech experience to give students hands-on and realistic simulations of creating new business ventures in the energy field. |
