EMP-47

The new year has ushered in great career moves for some of our classmates. In particular, congratulations are in order for Harvey Brownlee, who has been named chief operating officer for KFC. Don Versen became a principle consultant for Sun Microsystems and Tony Green has joined Bearing Point (formerly KPMG Consulting).

John Gillespie took an opportunity to go back into the medical field and joined Johnson & Johnson as director of product and process engineering for J&J's Ethicon business. John is now responsible for engineering related to the commercialization of new products for this $3.3 billion franchise. He says he was sad to leave Valeo Inc., where he "had an absolutely great time working with J.T. Weis, but this opportunity was too good to pass up." John and his family are relocating to central New Jersey.

Larry Rutkowski became vice president of sales for Frain Group in Franklin Park, Ill. Frain Group sells pre-owned packaging and processing machinery to a variety of consumer industries, and as Larry says, "the company has a lot of potential to grow exponentially." He adds that his position is "new, exciting and challenging." Although Larry was considering several positions that involved relocation, we're glad it worked out that he was able to stay in the Chicago area.

Another busy classmate these days is Polly MacIsaac. Polly became a mother of two when Tessa George Chutkow was born last June. One week later the family moved into a "great old house" that Polly says "will keep us going to Home Depot every weekend for the next 10 years." In addition to being a mom to Sam and Tessa, Polly is continuing her freelance consulting work doing market research analysis and strategic planning. Polly, Will and the kids are planning a trip back to Chicago this spring and hope to see several Kellogg friends.

Congratulations also go out to Sayeedha and Naj Uddin on the birth of their third, Alisha Uddin. Naj and family are currently living in the Baltimore area and enjoying life on the East Coast. After the recent sale of the company he was with, Naj's commute to work has improved dramatically — he was working in Bangalore, India, and living in Baltimore. He is considering career options in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas.

Thanks to Matt Gresge for organizing the fifth annual EMP-47 holiday get-together at the Berghoff. Joining Matt for holiday cheer this year were Mitch Sellett, Dan Rudrud, Vivian Mumaw, Paul Beaupre, Barry Metzger and Jim Sherman.