Kellogg World Alumni Magazine, Summer 2004Kellogg School of Management
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'03 alums
Friends reunited! Pierre-Andre Rebeyrat '03, Ludivine Rebeyrat, Mahesh Narang '03, Gabriele Galeani '03, Shilei Chen '03 and Dean Peterson '03
 
2003

What an amazing year we have had! At this time last year we were preparing for finals, graduation, trips around the world and moves ... where has the year gone!? Our class has surely been busy, with vacations, moves, births, weddings and of course ... jobs!

It was so wonderful to see everyone at Reunion! Our class had a great turnout, especially for it being such a busy weekend. The classes during the day proved insightful, as we reminisced of the old days and thought about being cold-called. Special K!'s 25th anniversary was truly "Even More Special," as the house erupted Friday night with hollers and excitement from roughly 60 alumni from the Class of 2003! Saturday's sessions were also fantastic, and Saturday night's Class of 2003 party at Rock Bottom Brewery was a great chance to remember and relive the old times and catch up. (Unlike the Deuce, though, there was only one pool table.) Thank you again to everyone who was able to join us for the weekend.

Have you checked out the new alumni network (that "Power Up" thing)? It's at alumni.kellogg.northwestern.edu. It's pretty impressive, with tons of new resources for alumni, including our own dedicated Class of '03 Web site. Please take a few moments to update your personal information so we can all more easily find each other, and to make sure you are informed of upcoming events for our class --- such as future Kellogg World submission deadlines! Also, please feel free to use our Class of '03 discussion boards and Web site (photos welcome) to continue to share the love.

Finally, continue to send us news about what's happening in your lives in between editions of Kellogg World! We cherish your updates like art drawings from children. No ... we don't put them on the refrigerator, but we do hold on to them with sheer excitement to share with anyone who will listen!

Let's get this party started! Since it's June, and June is a wonderful time for weddings, let's start with the many wonderful unions that have occurred in our classmates' lives!

Adrianne Galvin '03 and Charlie Agulla '03  
Adrianne Galvin '03 and Charlie Agulla '03 after their gorgeous wedding in Omaha, Neb.  
   

The first congratulations of this edition go to one of Kellogg's own couples, Adrianne Galvin and Charlie Agulla. While there were many people at Reunion, there sure were a lot of people missing. Could it have been due to the much-anticipated wedding of Adrianne and Charlie in Omaha? By looks of the pictures, they were definitely able to have their own mini-reunion! Congratulations, Adrianne and Charlie. We know everyone couldn't be more excited for you!

Amy DiMarzio married Garrett Zella on July 19, 2003, in Scituate, Mass. They currently reside in Brookline, Mass.

Another wonderful union occurred last summer with the wedding of Herman Chiang and Heather. They were married after graduation in Evanston, where fellow Kelloggians Greg Obenshain and Cameron Van Orman '02 were groomsmen. They then honeymooned in southern France and Paris before moving to Boston. Herman started a new gig with State Street, helping manage/invest a large portfolio of asset-backed securities, and Heather started her debt accumulation at HBS. (We all know a little bit about that!) Herman has had the chance to see a lot of Kellogg folks recently. Greg Lief, Dan Shufrin, Amy Zella (Dimarzio) (who, he reports, has more speed and skills than most guys in their league) and Herman play in a flag football league together (4-1 so far and heading to the playoffs!). Their team was aptly named the Kellogg Crush, but they thought it a bit nerdy (really?), so they changed it to Not in My House! This summer, he's looking forward to seeing Ben Burke and his family and Joe Levy and his family in Seattle when he visits Heather, who is joining the legions of Bill Gates' army for her summer internship.

Paulo Mesnik married Michelle Ghitnik '02 in December in Brazil.

Margie Block and Kevin Stineman '02 married on May 8, with many 2002 and 2003 alums in attendance!

For the last nine months, Jonathan Cutler has been working on developing the Advisory Board Co.'s presence in the United Kingdom and across Europe. The project has been going well, as they have been fortunate to win some new clients from the UK's National Health Service. Jonathan hopes he will soon have some inside help with the NHS, as fianceČ Heather will be graduating from Georgetown University's accelerated nursing program in December, and will move to London to begin working at a London hospital.

And, speaking of love, Clinton Kent reports, "I'm still infatuated with my pretend girlfriend, Nancy Rosen. She's the grooviest." You heard it here first, team.

Now that we've shared the great wedding news, there are plenty of births to report!

After starting her own consulting business in children's products, Joanna Shebson is proud to announce the birth of her very own focus group. Aryeh Zev Shebson was born on March 8, weighing 9 pounds, 4 ounces. Jonathan, Joanna and Aryeh are living in Santa Monica, Calif., where Aryeh finds the sounds of the Kelloggarythms CD very soothing!

The Owen family is growing. Jay Owen is proud to announce the birth of Amelia Huffman Owen on Dec. 23 in Chicago. She was 7 pounds, 3 ounces and 19 inches long. Amelia arrived home on Christmas Day, healthy and happy. Mother and daughter are doing great.

Alberto Bezanilla just had his third baby in Santiago, Chile. As their soccer team grows, some are envisioning a future Kellogg soccer World Cup final between Bezanilla Sporting Club and (Santiago) River-a Plate.

The Blount family is also growing! Brian Blount and his wife Jen welcomed Will, their first baby, on May 4. They are also excited to announce that the family has finally escaped the Chicago winters and moved to sunny Raleigh, N.C., where Brian will continue to work for IBM Global Services.

Ricardo Ballesteros and Viviana had their first baby, Viviana. Says Ricardo: "Yep, we're very creative in Mexico in naming kids. In my case, I'm the second Juan Antonio, the third Juan and the third Antonio in my family, counting only parents and grandparents."

Although we had our official one-year reunion in May, it's great to hear that we are keeping in touch with mini-reunions all around the world! Fasten your seatbelts, as we travel the globe to meet up with close friends ...

Pierre-Andre Rebeyrat was excited to share a surprise for this Kellogg World. On April 18, after 10 months in Italy, Gabriele Galeani finally decided to leave his beautiful family for a few days and come back to Chicago to reconnect with Kellogg friends and enjoy some nice Illinois weather. He was greeted on that occasion by a group of fellow MMMers around a barbeque at Pierre-Andre and Ludivine Rebeyrat's house. Gabriele currently works for Abbott Laboratories near Rome as a plant engineering manager.

'03 alums
From left, Huy Hoang '03 (who flew in from Oslo, Norway), Paul Cheng '03 (a Londoner), Gayatri Batra '03 (another Londoner), Vladimir Grilca '03 (yet another Londoner), Arnaud Beernaert '03 (who flew in from Brussels, Belgium), Miriam Claes '03 (who flew in from Brussels, Belgium) and Ankur Malik '03 (who flew in from Singapore), reunite on Notting Hill recently.
 
Make sure to buckle your seatbelt and put your tray tables up as we embark on quite the adventure with Jan Rhode. After graduation, he and his wife Patricia spent two months traveling to five countries and had the opportunity to see quite a number of fellow Kelloggians on their way, including Attila Toth and Edit, Warit Jintanawan, Huy Hoang, Amit Nag, Dean Lindo, Jim McIntyre and Joey Olivier. Jan's travel has continued at Bain & Co. in the Munich office.

Four days a week of travel have taken Jan to some nice destinations, including Zurich, Cologne, Venice, Milano, and exposed him to various industries including retail, airlines, telecommunications and private equity. In an effort to break all frequent-flier program requirements, Jan has also traveled to various places to visit with other Kellogg students. First, there was a wonderful mini-reunion in Miami in February with Kellogg's very own LAHIMA couple Denise Lazo and Arturo Vera, locals Rodolfo Novarini and Ingrid and globetrotters Attila and Edit. The next reunion occurred during Bain's new consultant training, where he had the chance to see Vicki Nakata, Enrique Carrizosa, and other Kellogg classmates.

Jan's travel continued into Mexico (Are you also dreaming of frequent flier miles?), where he had the chance to share a meal with Juan Martinez, Selman Careaga and Paola, Jorge Martinez, Santiago Rivera and Georgina, and newly-adopted Mexican Tomas Lange. Jan reports that everyone seemed in good spirits and happily engaged in various business and --- in the case of Juan aka "El Loco" --- social projects! Two trips to Madrid involved visits with David Nunez, Elena and little Adrian.

The day after graduation, Huy Hoang was on a plane straight to Tokyo for five days before spending five "veryyyyy boring weeks there (NOT)." After an uneventful five weeks in Bangkok, he visited his motherland of Vietnam for six weeks, and stopped in Seoul to visit Dave Das and his lovely wife before heading home in mid-September to start his new job. Huy's assignment was to start up a Norwegian office for Underwriter's Laboratories, the certification company with its mark on most electrical products. After seven months in Norway, his plan of settling down and starting a family was crushed when he was askedto take over the UL Sweden office, as well. So now, Huy runs both the Norwegian and Swedish offices from Stockholm. Therefore, his single status seems destined to remain the same for some time to come. He says he hopes everyone is doing OK.

'03 alums
A Kellogg get-together at Bain's new consultant training in Miami. Pictured, from left, are 2003 classmates Bruno Carvalho, Nevin Yuksel-Ekici, Mandy Taft, Neil Chernoff, Vicki Nakata, Jan Rohde and Chris Dupre.
 
Our very own Class of 2003 Kellogg soccer team was making noise again --- this time as alumni! Brady Countryman informed us of a great reunion that occurred in February in Austin, where the team traveled went to defend their title at the University of Texas tournament. So that there's no confusion, it is reported that the alumni did just as well as the current students! You'll always be No. 1 in our hearts!

On the social front, Miriam Claes and Paul Cheng were, at press time, busy organizing a European Kellogg reunion weekend in London during June. In attendance will be Huy Hoang Do, Anita Butt, Gayatri Batra, Ankur Malik, Arnaud Beernaert, Vladimir Grlica and Stacy Dickinson. Hopefully, we'll have some pictures for the next update!

What would our Kellogg World update be without the wonderful news we receive from Juan Martinez, our beat reporter in Mexico? We know he's shaking up the world in Mexico ... let's hear what else is going on:

Selman Careaga quit the consulting life at Booz Allen & Hamilton and returned to The Coca-Cola Co., where he became something akin to national marketing director of individual sizes (as opposed to family sizes, which are greater than 1 liter). In short, he is in charge of marketing 50 percent of Coca-Cola in the country with the second largest consumption in the world.

Santiago Rivera is still working on becoming an entrepreneur, with a focus on a mix of real estate and indoor soccer development. Stay tuned for more.

Jorge Martinez has been traveling back and forth between Mexico and Minneapolis, trying to convince Cargill's senior management to invest more heavily in Mexico. We hear he's succeeding at it.

Jose Luis Guerra is working in New York, but visited Mexico City to see his horses run in the Hipodromo de Las Americas. He ended up selling one of them to the first innocent bidder who showed up.

Francisco Covarrubias decided to move south to Austin, Texas, to work for Dell, leaving Chicago winters behind. He visited Mexico City just after spring break without telling anyone, and managed to run into Juan Martinez right outside of a bar. As Juan said, "You can still bump into people in a city with 25 million inhabitants!"

Mexico City also received the visit of Mariano Ramos, who's working in marketing for Mattel Latin America, based in Los Angeles, Calif., and hoping to enter the Hollywood scene as a double for Enrique Iglesias.

Andres Fosk is trying to put everything he learned from Professor Rogers into action as he starts his own business in Chile.

Finally, Juan Martinez would like to say he's sorry he wasn't able to attend Reunion. We won't print the various excuses he gave, but we can tell you that they were pretty interesting! We missed you, Juan, but please know that you were there in spirit!

Aside from all of the wonderful personal news (weddings, births, reunions), we still managed to find time to work!

  Joanna Shebson '03
  Baby Aryeh, Jonathan and Joanna Shebson '03 on their first Mother's Day Cruise in Santa Monica
   
 
  Class of 2003 salutes its very own Robin Barnes, deployed in Baghdad
   

Lisa Karbiner is still happily working at Miller Brewing Co., and was recently promoted again on the Miller Lite team. She and her husband, Mike, celebrated his graduation from law school in May, and both look forward to a dual-income household (finally!) after three years of a "starving professional student existence." Hoorah!

Ash Hussein is working as chief financial officer for Campus Concepts in Baltimore, Md.

Peter Grondin has been working at a value-oriented hedge fund since last September. He says he's definitely enjoying it, although it is tough to find cheap stuff in this market. Pete, we know that if anyone can do it, you can!

David Feinberg joined Sterling Partners, a private equity/venture capital firm in Northbrook, Ill., as a vice president in the newly-formed real estate fund. David and his wife Anne recently moved to Wilmette, Ill.

Andrea Paiz has been working as project manager at a distribution and marketing company in Guatemala. Her first big project was the launch of the Borden brand in Guatemala. So far, she's launched four products: sliced cheeses, powdered milk, liquid milk and powdered drinks, working on everything from the artwork to the pricing and launch plans for each. She's currently staying very busy with 12 new products to launch! For those who remember her amazing family business, she is happy to report that she's been working a lot on family business management issues. She recently went to London to participate in a seminar on this topic, where she met a lot of very interesting business families from around the world. To balance life a bit, Andrea took up karate when she returned to Guatemala, and is about to earn an orange belt. Congratulations!

Scott Sonju was promoted last month to senior vice president, business development, for Mandalay Sports Entertainment, which owns and operates multiple minor league baseball teams. He is assigned to its new team in Frisco, a suburb of Dallas and the second fastest-growing community in the country. Recently, the Sonjus reminisced about Kellogg with John Kim, when he stayed with them for a night while in town for Coke.

Karen Lee and husband Andy are living in North Hollywood, Calif. She is now at the USC alumni association as director of Asian Pacific alumni programs. Andy is finishing a part-time program this summer to earn his master's in education to become a high school principal.

How do we even begin to do justice to everything that is going on in Mike Simonton's life? We're still ascertaining what he really does at Ford Motor Co., although he recently reported that he continues to "document documentation and develop a documented document documentation strategy for the plant. But it's really sooo much more than documenting." Soon, "he'll be rotating to a role in product development, where (his) job will mostly be processing, re-processing, mock processing and scenario processing for 12-14 hours a day, plus weekends and holidays." Aside from the daily grind, he reports that life in the greater Detroit region is going well, and reminds us that regardless of whether we're in San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Dallas or Detroit, we would all most likely prefer conversations in the Atrium about where we're going for the weekend over the endless small talk with co-workers about gas prices, the weather, our future vacations and the latest person kicked off of a reality TV show.

Ajay Chawan is still an aspiring entrepreneur. He is living in Nashville, Tenn., and pursuing the business plan he worked on while at Kellogg --- a method to make low-carb foods that taste great. The patent for Ajay's process was granted this spring. Now Ajay is looking for VC funding and customers. Any takers?

class of '03
From left, Class of 2003 members Ketan Shah, Paul Cheng, Miriam Claes, Ravi Raghavapudi with his son Rishi and Neeraj Vashisht
 
Ketan Shah reports that he's still having fun at McKinsey, and is about to embark on a trip to Kitzbuhel, followed by a 10-day visit to his home in India. He said that Reunion was a fun time to catch up with old friends, even though he could only come for an hour. Over the weekend, though, he arranged a small outing to Holland, Mich., to see the tulips in full bloom. Paul Cheng and Miriam Claes (who came from U.K. and Belgium, respectively) were joined by locals Neeraj Vashisht, Ravi Raghavapudi and his family and Ketan and his crew.

The Kellogg crowd in NYC is excited to welcome Jen Posner to their crew! Jen moved to NYC from Washington, D.C., in June to begin the Omnicom MBA Residency Program. She will be joining fellow Kellogg grads Samantha Barnes and Eugene Lee.

We have received reports that one of our very own, Paul Cheng, was recently interviewed on the BBC! Paul moved back home to London, and is enjoying life with family and friends. Professionally, he's embarked on a very fulfilling adventure into the world of tech marketing by joining a Silicon Valley-based software firm called InfoTame to run its United Kingdom office. InfoTame is the world's first company to commercialize an artificial intelligence search technology for the corporate market, which can understand millions of text documents (e.g. emails, PDF, Word documents, Web pages), and then extract information based on its significance (rather than "frequency" of key words). The software was originally developed by the KGB intelligence services in Russia to sort its global database. They're basically a spin-off of the KGB Office of Advanced Analytical Tools, now wholly owned by InfoTame, an American company (although they still have more than 700 technicians in their Moscow R&D center). How ironic is that? The press has been so astonished by the technology that Paul got his 15 minutes of fame by being interviewed on BBC World Television in April for a documentary about the future of search technologies! Is this our first Class of 2003 alum in the news?

While still in New York City, Amy Earle has changed jobs! She is thrilled to be working at Alternative Investment Management with a fellow Kellogg alum, Jon Harris '99. They are a small fund of funds based in midtown Manhattan. Her new email is amy@altinvmgmt.com.

Curious about Jose Aragon? Well who the heck isn't? Good ole Jose has moved "across the Hudson river" from Manhattan and is working in institutional sales for AIG Global Investment Group. He's passed his Series 7 and 63 exams. Way to go, Jose! He also reports that he's bumped into Kevin Christie and Kurt Kempkes. Nobody was injured.

Last, but most certainly not least, the Class of 2003 salutes our very own Robin Barnes. Robin couldn't make Reunion since he was ordered to Baghdad two days after Christmas and is not due back until this summer. He sends his best to everyone in the class, as well as a photo from his deployment center.

After graduation, Kavita Pullapilly helped with the sale of the family business and decided to do volunteer work. Kavita is now in Ukraine working as a business consultant volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps. She is having fun learning Ukrainian and Russian while in training until June. After June, she will likely be posted in Western Ukraine, working as a business consultant with the Ministry of Commerce and teaching business.

Kellogg soccer team
Class of 2003 Kellogg soccer team alums join with members of the Kellogg School's current team at the University of Texas Soccer Tournament.
 
Thank you to everyone for your wonderful updates! Have a great summer. We look forward to hearing from you next year! All the best, Tindley and Barry

©2002 Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University