Vikram Sainadh (a joint-degree student from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto), Shari Litow and Chander Chawla at EMP-55’s reunion at the Allen Center in May.

EMP-55

Hi, everyone. There's much to report since our graduation in December. Seems many of our classmates have put their shiny new Kellogg MBAs to work for them in new positions. Lots of comings and goings and, sadly, a few classmates who have moved on to bigger and better things outside of the Chicago area. I apologize in advance to anyone I forgot. That must mean we haven't seen you at our EMP social events.

A reminder: Please update your information on the Kellogg Web site.

John Adams has moved with his wife, Renee, to Daytona Beach, Fla. John is now working in his family's business, Adams, Cameron & Co. Realtors. The company was founded more than 40 years ago by John's grandmother, and both John's father and brother work there now. John has taken on the role of GM and has been very busy enjoying the sunshine out in his boat or in the pool every weekend. We'll all be down to visit John and Renee in January and February.

Leah Campen EMP-55 married Frank Klepitsch last Valentine’s Day.
Bob Shanahan and John Kelly at the EMP-55 graduation party at Mike Romano's house.
EMP-55 classmates gathered in January at the home of Mike Romano and his wife, Therese, for a great graduation party. Pictured are Maria Sulliva and Kathleen Burandt
Cristina Gomez and Shawn McComb, EMP-55, at a party the class hosted in December at Fitzgerald's nightclub to celebrate its achievements

Bob Border has a new job at Midwest Generation in Chicago as regional director of information technology.

Gary Breuer has left Bearing Point to become assistant vice president at Alexian Brothers Health System in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Kathleen Burandt was guest speaker at a recent Young President's Organization meeting. The topic of her talk was the Kolbe Index. I heard rave reviews of her seminar and am hoping to get Kathleen to share her knowledge on this important topic with all of us from EMP-55.

Leah Campen married Frank Klepitsch in a lovely ceremony on Valentine's Day. As you can imagine, she was a beautiful bride. She serenaded the groom and entertained their guests during the reception. Leah has left Harris Nesbitt and gone into business with her new husband. The happy couple now reside in Lake Bluff, Ill.

Nigel Carter and his family moved back to England. Nigel is currently enjoying a paid sabbatical from Credit Lyonnais. He's enjoying reconnecting with old friends and getting used to driving on the left and drinking warm beer again Please keep in touch with all of us, Nigel.

Mike Cassady is happy to have moved to the private sector. The Hummel Group Ltd. is a development and construction firm specializing in urban downtown redevelopment, with projects in Woodstock, Ill; Lake Geneva, Wis.; Kansas City, Palatine, Ill.; and Pineville, Mo. The firm's principal, Bob Hummel, has 40 years of construction experience and has a strong brand identity for quality and character. Also, Mike and his wife, Allison, have a new baby boy named Michael Connor.

Chander Chawla has run in the Chicago Marathon.

Kevin (KC) Cleary and Jennifer Scattergood were married in April in Chicago. Their wedding was attended by a number of EMP-55ers, and I hear the reception was a blast. Kevin not only has a new wife, he also has a new job. He's now executive vice president of sales and operations for Clif Bar in Berkeley, Calif. Kevin and Jennifer are currently shopping for a new home in Marin County.

Rene Daellenbach recently accepted a promotion with FIMAT Inc. He and his wife, Jennifer, are moving with their family to New Jersey so Rene can be close to his new Rockefeller Plaza NYC office. The class had a going-away party last week for Rene at Randolph Street Oyster Bar. Rene says everyone should be sure to look him up when visiting Manhattan.

Phil Dolci has left Con Agra Foods. Where are you, Phil?

Todd Domecq and his wife, Nancy, welcomed their new daughter, Sophia Miette, on Jan. 23. Todd says she's the coolest.

Jim Falvey has accepted a position as general counsel with the new Eurex US in Chicago.

Roy George has made a move within the SC Johnson family of companies. He accepted a new position as product manager responsible for air fresheners.

Cristina Gomez just purchased a new home in Aurora, Ill. We'll miss her in the city and hope she'll visit us downtown very often.

Dean Hart says that he is happy to report that he doesn't have any more homework!

John Kelly has made a move from Kraft to Frito-Lay. No more mac-n-cheese?

Lilia Kiselev left ZS Associates and is now senior manager of sales incentives for Abbott Laboratories Pharmaceutical products division.

Bob Chase, David Sibery, Tony Tedeschi EMP-55, Karen Boland, and Mark Bush, who worked together to do pro bono consulting in Africa for the nonprofit organization CURE.

Shari Litow accepted a promotion within Dupont. She moved from the company's Solae protein technologies division to Dupont Titanium Technologies in Wilmington, Del. Shari is now a market development manager for Titanium Dioxide, working on developing new business ideas and opportunities. She and her husband, David, moved to Wilmington shortly after the birth of their new son, Nathan. We miss you, Shari.

Amy Kovalan and Edward Kerros recently purchased a new home in Oak Park, Ill. Amy has left the prestigious Northwestern University to work as associate vice president of advisory services for DePaul University.

Frank Muscarello and his wife, Stacey, are expecting another child. Also, Frank is opening a London office for his company, Vision Point of Sale Inc.

Paul Pappageorge sold his company, Pekin Uniform Rental. He's now partner in College Butler, a company that sells laundry services to colleges.

Tracy Quinn spent a month in Turkey with a group of Boeing executives. She was promoted and is now heading up shared support services for Boeing facilities worldwide.

Baldev Singh was promoted to a new position within Motorola.

Mike Smedley and his wife, Kristen, had a new baby girl named Karissa Faye. Mike also accepted a promotion within Trigen, which involved a move to the Philadelphia area. Kristen and Mike just moved into their new home in Ivyland, Pa. A new home and a new baby within about two weeks!

Steve Snower joined classmate Bill Reedy at Reedy Industries. Steve and his wife, Jocelyn, bought a house from classmate Mike Romano. Talk about Kellogg connections.

Michael Spencer recently launched his new business, an urban professional bowling alley called 10 Pin, located at the Marina Towers/House of Blues complex. It was written up in the Chicago Tribune. When do we get a class bowling party?

Tony Tedeschi has left Central DuPage Health to collaborate on a new venture, The Siberry Group, based in Carol Stream, Ill. Tony's new company offers healthcare consulting with concentrations in enterprise strategy and leadership, clinical quality, and financial and operating effectiveness. Tony is also now a medical director at Idilus.

Michael Wu and his family have relocated to Shanghai with Motorola. He's now doing strategy and business development for Motorola's semiconductor products sector. I hear from Jeff Nixon and Mark Straszynski that Michael is a great host and gives a fun tour of all the nightlife in Shanghai.

Raymond Ye has also relocated to Shanghai with his family. Raymond is still working for SC Johnson in its Shanghai Johnson office. Michael Wu and Raymond Ye joined the EMP GIM trip this spring for dinner in Shanghai, and the group got to visit Raymond at his new office.

Our classmate Jim Cohick recently took a trip to Hyderabad, India, to visit an office of CURE International. Jim worked with global information systems, located in HighTek City, a 10-story complex that houses the likes of Microsoft, GE Capital, Keane and Oracle, to name a few. While in Hyderabad for CURE, Jim visited Indian School of Business, one of the Kellogg School's international associates. Savita Mahajan, associate dean, MBA program, graciously met with Jim and gave him a tour of the facilities.

CURE International was founded by Jim's father-in-law, Dr. C. Scott Harrison, an orthopedic surgeon who left private practice to create a humanitarian nonprofit organization that builds and manages children's hospitals in underserved parts of the world. Dr. Harrison came to speak with our EMP-55 class as part of the guest lecturer series. He was profiled recently on public radio as part of its series on global activism and individuals who create projects to make the world a better place. As a Vietnam veteran and guest medical lecturer in Africa, Dr. Harrison saw the good that could be accomplished by what would be considered routine medical procedures here in the States.

Dr. Harrison and his wife opened their first hospital in Kenya and now operate nine hospitals and healthcare facilities around the world, including facilities in Uganda, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Afghanistan and Blantyre, Malawi. New facilities will include Ethiopia, Zambia and Vietnam. The goal is to open one or two new hospitals per year, creating a network for the disabled children of the world. Patients are the poorest of the poor because of disabilities and birth defects.

To continue the Kellogg connection, you should know that Tony Tedeschi and three of his colleagues from The Sibery Group (TSG), recently did some pro bono consulting for CURE. Tony is a founding partner and executive VP of TSG, which is a full-service healthcare quality consulting group that works internationally and in the United States. Tony's specific focus is on helping healthcare companies improve their quality of care. Tony and TSG visited the CURE hospitals in Mbale, Uganda and Kijabe, Kenya, to generously perform pro bono quality consulting work. In Uganda, Tony and TSG created a model for promulgating the good work of Dr. Ben Warf (a pediatric-trained neurosurgeon) for children with hydrocephalus, a medical condition that causes swelling of the head. When not treated, children with hydrocephalus typically have major cognitive disabilities. In Kenya, TSG formulated a management dashboard tool for CURE to use in benchmarking each hospital's effectiveness. This demonstrates what can be achieved when for-profit and nonprofit organizations come together, as well as what can be achieved when Kellogg classmates work together to help each other. Great work, Jim and Tony!

To learn more, listen to the April 8 public radio broadcast of "Worldview" on the opening of teaching hospitals in the Third World: www.chicagopublicradio.org/programs/worldview/worldview.asp or visit www.cureinternational.org.