1996

	Julie (Stahl) Peachey ’96 with husband Paul, Erik (5) and Annaliese (3) vacationing on Siquijor Island in the Philippines
	Catherine Daniels, Halina Miglus and Tim Daniels, all ’96, in Kuala Lumpur

Halina Miglus reports: “Catherine (Tonoco) Daniels, Tim Daniels and I got together at a lovely Chinese restaurant, aptly named Chyna, in Kuala Lumpur. We were celebrating our time as expats working in KL over the last few years and our upcoming new adventures as we all departed KL at the end of July. I am heading back to the U.S. and Catherine and Tim are headed to Manila.”

Liza (Wintroub) Hausman writes in: “I joined Houzz.com as vice president of marketing. Houzz connects homeowners looking for inspiration and resources with home designers, architects and landscape professionals. The photos are amazing and everyone I know is completely addicted, my family included. It’s fun to marry my passion for design with work! My son Cole started fourth grade and my daughter Leigh is in first grade this year. Jeff and I are still very happy in Palo Alto, Calif., and I love that I can bike to work. Would love to hear from anyone and everyone. Contact me at liza@houzz.com!”

Aaron Gerber joined Vanguard Health Systems as the senior vice president of strategy and business development for the Chicago Market. Vanguard owns and operates 26 acute care and specialty hospitals and complementary facilities and services in Chicago, Phoenix, San Antonio, Detroit and Massachusetts. Vanguard’s strategy is to develop locally branded, comprehensive healthcare delivery networks in urban markets. The company went public in June.

Sven Zehnder is doing something very, very cool (intentional pun): “I’ve taken on another exciting opportunity in the world of sports. After many years in the sporting goods world (Adidas, Nike) and more than four years in Formula 1, I am heading up, as an external consultant, the Swiss candidacy to stage the Olympic Winter Games in St. Moritz & Davos. The complex process of evaluation, if we can put together a competitive candidacy, includes (among other things) deep analyses and discussions with decisionmakers from the national and regional governments, sports federations and organizations and the departments for environment, traffic and Swiss tourism. Finally, the developing and formulating a vision, as well as selling it to potential sponsors, is fascinating.

“For those who know about my umbrella project (senz.ch), we sold 10 umbrellas during the first week in the market, despite steady sunshine in Switzerland!”

Michael Gruber has both an update and an opportunity for us: “I continue to remain active in funding and advising early stage companies through my recently-launched fund Independence Equity (independence-equity.com), advisory group VentureLab (theventurelab.com) and private investment group Cornerstone Angels (cornerstoneangels.com). We have two portfolio companies in Independence Equity and 21 portfolio companies in Cornerstone Angels. Within Cornerstone, we recently we had one company go public, Amyris Inc., with a current market-cap of about $850 million, as well as having our portfolio company Force10 acquired by Dell for $700 million. We are looking for additional investor members for Cornerstone as well as limited partners for our Independence Equity fund as we prepare for an additional closing at the end of 2011.

“I also remain active in advising a number of companies, as well as serving on the boards for ACG Chicago, NuVention Energy, DailyDAC Inc. and Factory Physics. I am particularly interested in companies in the cleantech space addressing issues relating to water, power generation, and energy efficiency. Please feel free to contact me if you have some ideas for companies I should be looking at, or if you would like to be involved in any of these efforts.

“I am also happy to report that my wife Ilisa and I had our fourth son Ryder Daniel in January, joining his other brothers Shaye, Brandon and Dylan. The Gruber house is quite noisy with four boys under the age of seven. I can be reached at gruber.michael@gmail.com.”

Ben Rossignol is in the sailing vanguard in Shanghai. He comments: “I am in Shanghai and busy with Shiyao Investment Ltd., the investment banking boutique I founded in 1999 after leaving the World Bank Group. We continue to strictly focus on the agribusiness, food industry and life science sector in China and Japan.

“But weekends are now dedicated to a new passion, sailing! I purchased the first J/80 manufactured in the PRC, moored in Xiamen. The Shanghai Dolphin Team was established to race on this J/80 in the growing number of regattas developing all along the China coast. Interested in joining or training with the Shanghai Dolphin Team? Contact me at brossignol@shiyaoinvestment.com.”

Brad Kinkelaar is now in Southern California. He writes: “I have been hired by PIMCO as an equity portfolio manager and I am now building PIMCO’s first-ever Newport Beach-based equity team. We plan to launch two global equity dividend funds by the end of the year. My family and I now reside in the Newport area after living in Vero Beach, Fla., for the past three years and Santa Fe, N.M., for ten years prior to that.”

From Julie (Stahl) Peachey: “My family and I have been living in the Philippines for the past year and a half. I am still working for Grameen Foundation, but now on a three-year project funded by the Gates Foundation to help a microfinance institution here offer better savings products and services to its poor clients in rural areas. We live about 1 1/2 hours south of Manila. If anyone is passing through the Philippines, we’d love to see you! Email me at peacheyj@gmail.com.”