| 1993
— Full-Time
Congratulations to John Podjasek and Rosalyn (Kemp) Podjasek '08, who were married on Sept. 12. They were glad to have many Kellogg friends at their wedding and reception, which took place at The University Club of Chicago. Guests included Mark Cozzi '92, Pat Burns, Stephanie Petti '09, Lisa Schumacher '91, Strib Koster '88, Jeff Podjasek '92, Ryan Ruskin '94, Carolyn McDonough '94, Bill McDonough, Mary Carter '05, Tim Michaels, Eric Menke, Dick Strup '76 and Fred O'Connor '85. After the wedding, John and Rosalyn were off to Italy for their honeymoon.
Congratulations also to John Morris, who recently passed his last test for the Illinois CPA Exam, one of his major goals for the year.
Andy Whitman just returned from taking his dad to Italy for 10 days. He says: "It was just the two of us for four days in Florence seeing the sights (and eating/drinking of course). We spent just under a week renting an amazing villa in Tuscany between Greve and Panzano in Chianti. No shortage of art, history, scenic countryside — and, of course, vino, salumi, formaggio, gelato, etc. Did I mention the vino?" The latter villa was their base for trips to Siena, Volterra, San Gimignano, Radda, Pisa and many other places not at Andy's jet-lagged fingertips.
Dan Malven and his wife Audi Melsbakas '94 drove from Chicago to Maine with their four kids this summer. On their way back they stopped in Cleveland and stayed with John LeMay and his family. Workwise, Dan spent 2000-08 as an independent angel investor and "busy dad." Now he's back as an operator, co-founder and CEO of Analyte Media. Details can be found at his blog (startupconversations.com) and the corporate site (analytemedia.com).
After doing his time in the corporate world, Chuck Phillips moved from Connecticut to the Boston area three years ago and enrolled in a school for traditional furniture making. He has since graduated and started his own one-man business. Chuck focuses on traditional designs, with each piece handmade to customer specifications. You can find his work at furnituretoorder.com. He says: "I have grown quite fond of New England and am looking to move back to southeastern Connecticut to set up house and my shop. I hope to see some of my Kellogg friends again once I get relocated."
Brad Johnson finished his second year as a member of the Ottawa Hills Board of Education. The school district was ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in student academic achievement in the state of Ohio in 2008 and 2009, respectively. His children, Randall and Kathleen, are "growing like weeds." Brad, wife Allison, and the kids had a great trip to western South Dakota to visit Allison's family and tour Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave, the Badlands, Wall Drug and Evan's Plunge. He says: "A great time had by all. Building materials is still a challenging market, but the disruption is creating opportunities that would not have existed otherwise."
After having joined AIG Private Bank as COO in September 2008, Alfred Moeckli was confronted two weeks into the job with deep crisis management. He writes, "Fortunately it worked out well as we succeeded in selling the bank to one of the sovereign wealth funds of Abu Dhabi, thereby returning some fiercely needed cash to AIG Inc." So in total, Alfred was working seven months for the U.S. government — "or rather, the U.S. taxpayers." He continues as COO of the renamed bank, Falcon Private Bank, which aims to become the leading private bank in the Middle East.
Tim Lewis left CRG Partners, a turnaround and crisis management consulting firm, after six-plus years. He has joined a small private equity firm, Atlantic Street Capital, that invests in distressed and deep-value lower-middle-market companies. Tim is living in New York, but his new office is in Stamford, Conn. He and his wife just celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary and have three children, twin girls (4) and a boy (2). He says, "Despite the chaos in my life, I try to stay in touch with NYC alums and others. Visitors welcome!"
After 14 years of living and working in San Antonio for the same company, it was time for a change for Eric Shapiro and to "start seeing my wife, kids and dog again." After some much-needed time away from work, a great opportunity came along in December for Eric to run marketing for a medical device company in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, before he could actually reap the rewards and enjoy that opportunity, the CEO (his boss) was fired, and the job offer was rescinded. Eric writes: "While not having to work in a city where the average temperature is about 50 degrees cooler than San Antonio was not a complete disappointment, not having a job in the midst of one of the worst economic crises that this country has seen wasn't ideal either." Fortunately, an even better opportunity came along a few months later for Eric to run marketing for the Americas region with Given Imaging (the Israeli company that makes the pill camera that you swallow and that provides images of various segments of the digestive tract). So, now Eric and his family have moved to Atlanta, Ga., where the climate is pleasantly cooler than San Antonio, but the people are still very friendly. Eric and his wife Beth look forward to seeing anyone living in Atlanta (or flying through on Delta).
After spending 13 years at Kraft, Thano Chaltas joined UST (Copenhagen & Skoal) as vice president of marketing in 2006, a de facto CMO role leading their brand management, consumer insights, new product innovation and interactive/direct marketing teams. In January, UST was acquired by Altria, which subsequently relocated the company from Stamford, Conn., to Richmond, Va., mid-year. Thano chose not to move and has now joined the job-seeking ranks focusing on vice president marketing/CMO positions, ideally commutable from Fairfield County, Conn. He'd love to hear from any fellow Kellogg alums. You can contact him at TAChaltas@aol.com or linkedin.com/in/thanochaltas.
I've had an interesting past few months from a work standpoint. I (Heather Forsythe) left SanDisk earlier this year, where I was director of global corporate marketing. Why? Much as I enjoyed the job itself, the semiconductor industry wasn't doing well (an understatement) — and a great opportunity to build a marketing organization for a promising start-up, PayCycle, practically fell in my lap. A couple months into my job, which I was really enjoying, PayCycle was purchased by Intuit. Though Intuit wanted to keep the engineers and product team, they apparently didn't need any more marketing, IT, and HR folks. So once I finish work on some integration and rebranding efforts in November, I'll be looking for my next gig. So, like Thano, I'd love any job leads or recruiter referrals you can send my way. My ideal role would be to run brand or corporate marketing efforts (senior director/VP level) for a global company based in the Bay Area — B2B or B2C. I'd also be open to running the marketing organization for a promising start-up, which I've done several times in the past. You know my e-mail address. If we're not already connected on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/heatherforsythe), please connect. In the midst of all this change, I still managed to squeeze in a couple wonderful trips — a week in Glacier National Park/Banff/Jasper and a week in Tokyo/Kyoto. I'll never tire of exploring the world!
Please keep your updates and pictures coming. These class notes are only as good as the contributions you send in. Enjoy the holidays — and keep in touch! |
