© Nathan Mandell Award winners! Back row (L to R): Wade Fetzer '61, Marc Landsberg '89, Neill Brownstein '68, Joel Weiner '58, Jeffery Vender '98, Dale Park Jr., Doug Bell '89. Front row: Wiwan Tharahirunchote '85, Donald Jacobs, Dianne Loeb '80. Not pictured: Jim Oates, Mrs. Keith DeLashmutt, Kathryn Gerber, Margaret Gerber and Gayle Lomax

Staying connected
Alumni Awards celebrate standouts in Kellogg's 'vibrant community'

by Matt Golosinski

The Kellogg Graduate School of Management honored several alumni and friends of the school during an April 2 dinner at the James L. Allen Center. As in previous years, the Alumni Awards bestowed special recognition upon a select few individuals for their extraordinary service to the Kellogg school. This year, in addition to granting The Schaffner Award and The Kellogg Alumni Service Award to its graduates, Kellogg also presented a new honor called the Friends of Kellogg Graduate School of Management to acknowledge the efforts of non-graduates.

"My passion for Kellogg compels me to seek ways to contribute to the school and make it an even better institution for the past, current and future students who will one day walk its halls, experience its joys, and feel its rhythms," said Marc Landsberg '89, who was one of three Alumni Service Award winners. Landsberg, the executive vice president of Internet strategy at Leo Burnett, added that his relationship with the Kellogg school has flourished and deepened over the years.

In addition to Landsberg, Doug Bell '89 and Gayle Lomax '94 received Alumni Service Awards. Bell, president of a New York-based advertising firm that bears his name, expressed his feelings about his connection with Kellogg.

"For me, Kellogg is not about memories or even about what's happening on campus today. It's about a vibrant community that's immediately relevant to my personal and professional life," he said. Bell added that his participation in the Kellogg Alumni Club of New York has been a wonderful experience. "I've made hundreds of friends, some of whom have become clients," he said. "I consider it a privilege to have worked with Kellogg alumni, and I'm honored to be among those recognized for our efforts."

© Nathan Mandell Prof. Bob Magee with Mrs. Keith DeLashmutt and Don Jacobs

Lomax, vice president for T. Rowe Price Investment Services' individual marketing group, acknowledged the benefits she has enjoyed by maintaining her relationship with the Kellogg school. "I am extremely honored to be a recipient of the Alumni Service Award," she said.

"The education I received at Kellogg has served me well in my career, and the friendships and networks established during those years remain strong to this day. Kellogg gave me new direction�and the tools to take theoretical concepts and apply them to real-world problems. The school remains a key resource in my professional development."

Winners of this year's Schaffner Award were Dr. Jeffery Vender '98, Neill H. Brownstein '68, Dianne Dardes Loeb '80, Wiwan T. Tharahirunchote '85 and Joel Weiner '58. Vender is chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and director of critical care at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. He also serves on the executive committee of the Kellogg Alumni Advisory Board. Brownstein is a founding member of the boards of directors of Bisnet and Club One, among others, and has more than 30 years in the venture capital industry. He serves on the Kellogg Alumni Advisory Board. Loeb is a co-founder of the Kellogg Alumni Club of Seattle and was Kellogg's director of admissions from 1982-1984. She is a strategic planning consultant who works with her husband, Steve '81, in the family's business, Alaska Distributors Co. Tharahirunchote is president of One Asset Management Ltd., the second-largest fund management company in Thailand. She has been the representative for the Thailand alumni club since 1989 and was recently named to the "New Breed of Talent" list by the Thailand newspaper The Nation. Weiner was formerly executive vice president for Seagram Distillers and executive vice president for corporate marketing at Kraft Foods.

Kellogg's John D. Gray Distinguished Professor of Marketing Louis Stern singled Weiner out, praising his "unbelievably deep knowledge of marketing" and extraordinary capacity to assess and guide others in their careers. "Joel is self-effacing, but he's really a mentor par excellence," Stern said. "It's beyond my imagination to even estimate the number of future CEOs he hired and coached during his tenure at Kraft."

	© Nathan Mandell Jacobs expresses thanks to Kellogg friend Jim Oates.

Wiener shared his feelings about winning the Schaffner. "Kellogg helped me gain access to interviews with the top consumer packaged goods companies. I believe we all owe something to the unselfishness of people who helped us when we needed it."

The five recipients of the Friends of Kellogg Graduate School of Management were: Mrs. Keith I. DeLashmutt; Margaret and Kathryn Gerber; Jim Oates; and Dale Park Jr. DeLashmutt established a chair in the Accounting and Information Systems Department in 1989 and has remained a generous supporter of Kellogg. In 1991, the Gerber sisters endowed the J. Jay Gerber Chair at Kellogg in honor of their brother. They have also provided funding for a gift annuity to benefit Kellogg. Oates, who retired as president of Leo Burnett Worldwide in 1999, has been a member of the Kellogg Advisory Board for 10 years. He has helped numerous Kellogg student groups organize international trips. Park has been an active friend to Northwestern University for more than threedecades and a university trustee since 1979. He has remained a member of Kellogg's Advisory Board since 1979.