Kellogg World Alumni Magazine Spring 2005Kellogg School of Management
In DepthIn BriefDepartmentsClass NotesClub NewsArchivesContactKellogg Homepage
Class Notes
Class Reps
Class Web sites
 
 
 
 
 
 
Address Update
Alumni Home
Submit News
Index
Search
Internal Site
Northwestern University
Kellogg Search
class of 2003 in Singapore
From left, 2003 classmates George Verghese, Ankur Malik, Arnaud Beernaert (Brussels), Phillia Wibowo (Jakarta), Pipavin Sodprasert (Bangkok), Allen Wang (Beijing) and Anne Tse (Hong Kong) reunite in Singapore.

2003

We hope this edition of Kellogg World finds our classmates safe, healthy and enjoying 2005. It has been quite an interesting five months since the last Kellogg World submission, and before we share some of the wonderful updates of our classmates, we want to pause for a minute and recognize two life-changing events.

First, like many of you, we were saddened and shocked on Dec. 26 as news of the tsunami spread across the globe. Immediately, our thoughts were with classmates and their friends and family who might have been affected. At times like these, we realize that while our Kellogg family spans the globe, it remains very close to our hearts. You may have also read that Dean Jain and his family were in Thailand when the tsunami struck, but they were fortunate to be out of harm's way.

  Ari and Naomi Rosenfeld '03
 

Abigail Rose and parents Ari and Naomi Rosenfeld '03 mark Abigail's first Hanukkah.

   
  Margaret Paproski '03
  It's a family affair! Pictured are Peter Paproski, Margaret Paproski '03 and Henry Paproski, ready for Halloween 2004.
   
  Andre Winarto '03
 

Pictured, from left, baby Dean, Owen and Andre Winarto '03

   
  Alyssa (Pohl) Barrett '03
 

Alyssa (Pohl) Barrett '03 with husband Matt and new son William Ryan

   
  Chris Dupr� '03
 

Chris Dupré '03 proudly presents older daughter Mackenzie and newest member of the family, Avery Grace.

   

We wish you the very best in 2005 and hope that it brings health and happiness to you and your families. Please continue to forward your information and updates, as they are precious reminders of how great life continues to be as our time away from Kellogg (almost two years) grows!

All the best, Tindley and Barry

The Kellogg family keeps growing by leaps and bounds! Since spring is in the air we thought we'd begin this update by welcoming all of the wonderful additions.

First, Naomi Rosenfeld and husband Ari welcomed a beautiful little girl, Abigail Rose, on Dec. 2, weighing 7 pounds, 15 ounces, and measuring 20 inches.

Guy and Margaret Paproski are pleased to announce the arrival of the newest addition to their family, Henry Edmund Paproski, born Sept. 11.

Pete Grondin reports that he started a new position at a hedge fund called Renaissance Technologies. He is one of three investment professionals who will be building a new value-investing arm of the existing business, and states that while still tough to find cheap stocks in this market, the time may be coming soon. But be aware we don't take any responsibility for investment choices made on account of reading Kellogg World! He and Heather are proud to announce their most valuable asset, their baby boy Jack, born Sept. 22.

Andre Winarto and wife Michelle are proud to welcome their second son, Dean Lew Winarto, born in early January in Sydney. Ever the student, Andre is putting his Kellogg knowledge to use as a father and finding that there are "really good economies of scale with having two young kiddies." In other news, they ran into Lu Gallucci and Anouk Lee when Lu visited Sydney in late 2004, and they also bumped into Jacqueline Chow at Bronte Beach.

Alyssa (Pohl) Barrett and husband Matt are happy to announce the Oct. 19 arrival of son William Ryan. Everyone is happy and healthy and adjusting to life together in the suburbs of Chicago.

Erich Hoefer and Eva Katsari (of Kellogg's Student Affairs Office) welcomed their first child, Alexandros Katsari-Hoefer, into the world Feb. 4. Mother and son are both healthy and doing well. Erich and Eva are living in Washington, D.C. Erich is working as brand manager for the Quality Inn and Clarion Hotel brands at Choice Hotels International and is having a great time of it. Eva is pursuing a law degree at American U and not having that much fun at all.

Chris Dupré and wife Michelle welcomed their second daughter into the world Feb. 22. Avery Grace Dupré weighed in at 8 pounds, 3 ounces, and measured in at 20.5 inches. Mom and daughter are doing fine. Congratulations, Duprés! Way to nab another tax deduction!

Congratulations to all of the new moms, dads, sisters and brothers!

class of 2003 alum wedding attendees
Kellogg attendees at Spencer Phua '03 and Fiona Lau's wedding included, from far left, Lin Yang '04, Vee-En Chan '04, Spencer Phua, Sharon Tung TMP '04 and Ying Lin '04.

Moving from babies to weddings: When considering all of our wonderful KOA and KSI locations, who knew that the "altar" was one of the final destinations? Brian Peller '02 and Julie (Sneider) Peller were in on the little secret. After meeting on their KOA in France, they were married Oct. 9 in St. Louis. Bridesmaids included Shari Gordon and Natasha Salij Deckmann. They are now living in NYC. Congratulations!

  Spencer Phua '03
  Spencer Phua '03 and Fiona Lau arrive at the church for their wedding.
   

Spencer Phua and current Rutgers MBA student Fiona Lau were married Jan. 9 in West Orange, N.J. The wedding was a true international affair, including many friends from around the country. There was also a very strong Kellogg contingent in attendance. Congratulations to you both!

Nicole Lai married Brian Bartles, her boyfriend of 11 years, on Oct. 2 in Dallas.

Now, on to more interesting Kellogg news from around the world. First, we start with wild happenings in Mexico and beyond.

For Thanksgiving José Luis Guerra skipped the traditional Macy's parade in New York and flew home to Mexico City to celebrate his birthday with his family and friends.

Aaron Martin escaped to sunny Acapulco for the holidays, but his flying schedule (and urgency to get a suntan in order to lose his gringo look) kept him from staying a day in Mexico City and organizing a Brow-Foreman liquor-tasting for his friends.

Julie Sneider Peller '03
The wedding ceremony of Brian Peller '02 and Julie Sneider Peller '03 was a chance for the class of 2003 to come together again.

Another frequent flyer during the holidays was Tomas Lange, who went back to his homeland in Buenos Aires, Argentina (well, one of his homelands); visited his parents in Santiago, Chile; and spent a couple of days in sunny Punta del Este, Uruguay; allegedly for an Allied Domecq meeting ... What more could anyone ask for? A job at an alcoholic beverage company with meetings in sunny places? Man!

Cargill Mexico is in mourning since Jorge Martinez left in January to join the family business in Monterrey, Mexico. Nowadays he is reorganizing a Toyota dealership chain with very aggressive marketing plans and developing new business opportunities, putting all his MKTG-430 and MGMT-466 studies to work.

Class of 2003 friends

Pictured, from left, Class of 2003 friends Jesse Marmon, Ankur Malik, George Verghese and Paul Cheng enjoy the cafÈ lifestyle on Orchard Road in Singapore.

David Nuñez left the 80-hour-week world of investment banking for the more relaxed 45-hour-week private equity world, becoming the associate investment director of Catalana de Iniciativas, a leading Spanish PE fund. David reports he is enjoying the job a lot, since he now is the one to set up agendas and sit on several boards of directors. His 16-month-old son Adrian is as hyperactive as ever. Wife Elena is following up her schoolteacher studies.

'03 alums at MBA Poker Tournament
Kellogg School participants in the first-ever MBA Poker Tournament in Los Angeles included, from left, Brian Colton '04, David Wang '03, Dennis Chae '03, Bo Sandine TMP '03, Rudy Pimentel '03, Andy Thung '02, Mazen Ghurani '02, Vito Iaia '02, John Dohm TMP '93 and Paras Maniar '04.

Juan Martinez is getting old and swears he is also becoming more mature. Juan turned 28 in November and did not manage to keep his party going beyond 5:30 a.m. ... mostly because he was dragged to another party. Still, guests enjoyed the "piñata" party with cake, candies, b-day hats, Mexican wrestling masks and a clown. Kellogg appearances included Santiago Rivera, Tomás Lange and the surprise visits of Francisco Covarrubias and Santiago Dominguez '04 (all the way from Austin, Texas, and Bakersfield, Calif., respectively).

  Juan Martinez '03
  Juan Martinez '03, left, clownin' around on his 28th birthday.
   

In other news, Juan Martinez just became a part-time undergrad finance professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. He swears that he's doing this just for the charitable and unselfish interest of spreading his Kellogg learning among the people, not because it is a great opportunity to meet undergrad girls.

Next we go to Singapore, where many a Kellogg reunion has happened in the past year. Not surprisingly, Ankur Malik and George Verghese are consistent participants at each occasion!

First, Paul Cheng, Ankur Malik, George Verghese and Jesse Marmon met up for a small reunion over New Year's. Ankur and George are residents in Singapore; Jesse was visiting her parents who work in Singapore; Paul was visiting from London and trying to use up his air miles.

class of 2003 gathering
Friends gathered at a local Starbucks in NYC before saying goodbye to Eric McAlpine '03. From left, Elaine Schulze '03, Brian Fitzpatrick '03, Rakesh Sehgal, Beth Heintzelman, Gilbert Dychiao and Eric McAlpine '03.

Continuing to make the rounds in Singapore, Ankur and George also caught up with fellow 2003 classmates who were in Singapore for McKinsey associate training.

  José F. Etchegoyen '03
  José F. Etchegoyen '03 and family
   
  Huw and Tindley (Whipple) Gilbert '03
  Huw and Tindley (Whipple) Gilbert '03 show off new pup Hudson
   

Next we move to Seattle, which is the new home of Eric Whaley and fianceé Marla. New York wasn't ready to say goodbye, but Eric and Marla were ready to see if Seattle is as great as everyone says it is. They report they love it, and with the extremely mild winter they have had, they believe the Seattle rain thing is just a myth. Eric is still doing public finance at Merrill Lynch and Marla landed a marketing job at Starbucks and is having a blast there. Appears there is a great contingency in Seattle as well, where Eric ran into fellow classmates at the Seattle Tech Trek happy hour.

Farther south, the Kellogg Alumni Club of Los Angeles hosted the first-ever MBA Poker Tournament in December. Kellogg placed third out of 120 participants, from among more than 20 schools!

Huy Hoang is in denial, still believing that he is at Kellogg. He tried to re-enact his second-year spring break by visiting Rio over New Year's. There he met with Jason Kasarda, but just missed Gustavo. Jason and Huy spent most of the day complaining about the cold weather, the ugly beaches, the expensive and bad food, how cold people are in Rio and the big size of the local bikinis. Early in February he met up with Krzysztof Badowski in Warsaw and was so amazed by Krzysztof's apartment that he became mute for several minutes, insisting finally on taking pictures of the apartment to have proof that he set foot in such an awesome place. Otherwise, Huy is doing well in Stockholm and wishes everybody the best in the new (Chinese and otherwise) year.

Kim Rosenkoetter is "still hanging in there at BCG in Chicago" and getting ready to ramp up a new project. Hang in there, Kim. You'll do a fantastic job, as always!

Jodi (Matthes) Gingiss started a new job at LaSalle Bank as VP of civic and community development.

After spending a little more than a year working at Ford Motor Co. in product marketing, Barry Grant rotated into a new position in marketing communications in September. In his new role he's working on developing and executing the company's integrated advertising strategies across all media, focusing on Ford division cars. Watch for his new campaign: "Ford ... Makes You Really Attractive."

Ben Tisdell checks in with the following update: "I just finished clerking for a year with Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. I went traveling with friends for a few months in Spain, Germany, Poland and Denmark, went to the Day of the Dead festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, and am now working as a corporate associate with the New York law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell."

Pradeep Saha has accepted a position at GE leading a multifunctional team in the homeland security marketplace.

From Andrea Paiz: "Hi all! After a year and a half of working with Borden, launching six products for the brand in Guatemala, I have left my job there to venture into the world of retail. March 1, I will start my new job as the general manager for my family´s franchise group, which at the moment manages two Italian clothing franchises: Benetton and Sasch. In the meantime, I am taking two weeks off in February to visit Jen McKnight '03 in San Francisco and then together we plan to meet up with 15 other Kellogg alumni at Whistler to take advantage of the great skiing. There are plans for a group of people to come tour Guatemala, so anyone who wants to sign up is welcome!"

The last six months have been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride for Huw and Tindley (Whipple) Gilbert. Professionally, Tindley is still a marketing manager at Pfizer, working on the company's COX-2 marketing team. You may not have known about Celebrex and Bextra before September (she was doing her job, really!), but the withdrawal of their major competitor, Vioxx, has created quite the atmosphere at work. Huw hasn't been safe from the madness either, as he continues to work in crisis PR for Pfizer. Personally, they lost their 5-year-old golden retriever, Hamilton, to a rare form of cancer in August. NYC was definitely not the same without a four-legged furry friend, so in November, they welcomed Hudson, a 7-week-old golden retriever, into their home.

Class of '03 alums
Class of '03 alums enjoy a relaxing moment after a busy day on Whistler's slopes.
 

Finally, armed with laptops, Blackberry devices, GSM phones and GPS units, a gang of '03 and '04 Kellogg powder (or, um, ICE) junkies returned to the slopes of Mighty Whistler Blackcomb in Vancouver, B.C., over President's Day weekend. Although the carry-on items in their backpacks may have changed since December 2002, their intentions were the same: ski and board all day, live like kings and queens all night. The trip was organized by our very own Vicki Nakata and Doug Dixon, who have been renominated as next year's club chairs, pending GMA approval, of course.

Class of '03

Take the picture so we can hit the slopes! Embarking on their Whistler Blackcomb adventure, from left, are Class of '03 members Doug Dixon, Vicki Nakata, Barry Grant, the head of Bob Hostetter, Gerry Gilligan and Monica Rinkevich (friend of Gerry Gilligan).

High points included warm and beautiful days with "unlimited visibility," gourmet lasagna and German chocolate, the satisfying smell of Gluhwein during each evening's Apres Ski, rockstar condos with rockstar Jacuzzis, international Scrabblemania, fond memories of the spot where Katja '04 and Dean Lindo first felt the pings of GermoDaniCarribeanadian Love and drinking games that could only come from the minds of trained consultants. Laughable low points included flight and luggage muckups, sniffly Amits, snowboarder rescue missions over the side of Whistler mountain, bruised and (potentially) broken body parts, bruised and (definitely) broken ski parts and the confirmed sighting of an evil gnome in Condo #2202 by 14 degreed MBAs. Missing: mid-week theme party at the top of the gondola. Maybe next year?

©2002 Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University