1994
Hi
everyone! I have picked up the ball I dropped last go-around
and have a mix of self-reported news, snippets from the press
and info gleaned from holiday cards. In the future, do me
a favor: If you send out a holiday letter, print another one
and add me to your distribution list.
Let's
start with congratulations to Amy Rose and her husband Allen Weinberg. Amy and Allen joyfully
welcomed daughter Madeline Rose Weinberg in October. Madeline
joins big brother Jack and her parents in New York City. Amy
works for Avon in the U.S. fragrance group. Bill
and Betsy (Day) Schmitt are
another growing family. Their second daughter Amelia arrived
last spring, joining big sis Hailey, lab Lucy and Mom and
Dad in Redwood City, Calif.
Tibor
Toth has this news to
share: "My firm, Ascent Venture Partners (ascentvp.com), is a 20-year-old venture capital firm based
in Boston. We recently completed raising our fourth venture
capital fund, with total capital of $140 million. We provide
growth capital and acquisition capital to information technology
and industrial product/technology companies in the Northeast
and Mid-Atlantic states. I love hearing from classmates so
please contact me with ideas, questions and referrals."
Thanks
to those who wrote directly to share their news. May there
be more of you in the very near future, or I am going to have
to start Googling people and I really don't have time for
that. Marci Chapman writes that she was promoted to executive vice president
of the marketplace division of FTD. This division sells floral
supplies to florists and has a small greeting card company.
Marci has been with FTD for eight 1/2 years and is excited
about the challenge of running this division.
David
Tatge and his wife Jennifer welcomed a second son, Mitchell
Charles, in May 2004. They live in Danbury, Conn. In exciting
and different news, David just published his first novel.
To paraphrase his press release, David's debut novel, Playing
By Ear, is "a darkly comic story of a man who, following
the departure of his wife, embarks on a path littered with
irrational infatuations with co-workers and impulse CD purchases."
In the release, David says: "I was looking to explore
the contours of the sometimes sad, sometimes creepy mind of
the abandoned man. It's written for the muddy mass of those
who have been, are being or will be dumped." The book
was published by iUniverse in February and, among other places,
you can find it at amazon.com or bn.com. Congratulations,
David! Any other published or hoping-to-be-published authors
out there that we should know about? I manage to find time
to read, but often struggle to even put together this column.
Of course, more fuel for the fire sure would be helpful ...
A
few intriguing job and locale changes to report. Doug Gillespie
has taken a new job in L.A. Doug and his wife Serena and their
two kids left San Francisco in February, bound for Encino,
Calif. Doug is running marketing for Munchkin — not
munchkins of Duncan Donuts fame, but Munchkin, the small,
private company that produces baby products — sippy
cups, teethers and toys. If you are in L.A. or have people
for Doug to connect with, let him know. Also departing beautiful
San Francisco, but staying closer to home, Laura
(Fink) Katter and her family have moved from the city, across the
Bay Bridge to suburban Piedmont. Mike Axelrod left Kraft and returned to his roots, joining McCain
Foods, a Canadian-based food company known for its French
fries and snack foods. Mike's new role is vice president of
Global Innovation, encompassing marketing and new product
development. Though the company is headquartered in Canada,
Mike will continue to be based in Chicago, where McCain has
a large presence. He and his wife Lisa (Foltz) Axelrod live in Evanston with their two children.
After
more than 10 years in Chicago, Milt and Kathleen Miller Liu departed in October for the colder climes of Minneapolis.
(Why couldn't they have moved while I still lived there?)
Milt has joined Target. I am a bit fuzzy on specifics, but
I believe his new role involves the in-store restaurants/food
service. Milt and Kathleen and their three boys, Jasper, 2,
and twins Theo and Walker, 1, are living in Shorewood on a
frozen lake. David Miller
and his family have also been lured by Target to relocate
to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. It is a run on Minnesota!
Speaking
of Minnesota, I recently got together with Dan Evarts and his wife Tray, who hosted a dinner for those in Boston who used to
live in Minnesota. The Evarts live in beautiful Hingham, Mass.,
with their three kids, Sayle, 6; Tyler, 4; and Jack, 2. Dan
commutes via water shuttle to work in downtown Boston (when
not traveling), where he works for a turnaround consulting
firm. Grace Han
just narrowly missed our Minnesota reunion. After a few years
in Boston with Adams, Harkness and Hill in healthcare investment
banking, Grace departed Boston for Hartford, Conn., to join
Aetna as director of business development. She says it is
an interesting time in the health benefits industry, with
the movement toward consumer-driven healthcare.
In
more Boston news, I saw Lanny Thorndike in the fall. You may have, too. During the fifth game
of the Red Sox-Yankees game, Lanny appeared on TV when the
cameras panned the crowd. It was the bottom of the 14th inning,
David Ortiz at bat, a few pitches away from his game-ending
RBI single. When not at Fenway, Lanny is the chief investment
officer for Century Capital Management and the lead portfolio
manager for the Century Small Cap Select Fund. He is often
quoted in financial news.
Alex
Moot and his wife Nancy
Roosa and kids hosted a big Halloween get-together. Every
year they turn the 50-foot tunnel between their garage and
house into a spooky Halloween sensation to entertain both
kids and adults. We trekked the approximately 2 1/2 miles
from our house to theirs for the fun. I think I actually may
have accidentally absconded with an old sippy cup —
perhaps Doug can offer a complimentary replacement? I very
briefly connected with Eric and Elizabeth (Feng) Woo and their son Cody, who were enjoying the festivities.
Rudy
Ruggles left the world
of independent consulting to join Monitor Executive Development,
part of the Monitor Group in Cambridge, Mass.
Some
of you may have read in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere
about the initiatives of Rick Smith. Rick spent time
after Kellogg with Spencer Stuart and co-authored the best-selling
book, The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers. Rick is the
founder and CEO of World 50, a networking organization for
C-level executives. Last year, the firm created Marketing
50, a network for chief marketing officers that allows only
one member per industry to join and offers networking and
opportunities for discussion among marketing executives. Rick
lives in Atlanta.
Well,
that is it for me and this is all I could pull together this
time. As you have news to report — novels published,
quotes in the major media, life changes, inspirational, professional
or personal developments or anything you would like to share,
please be in touch.
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