1990

I was so pleased to hear from many of you over the last months.

There were rumors that Jerald Wenker is considered by Crain’s Chicago Business to be a star on the “40 under 40 list.” Accolades can be found on the Web site www.chicagobusiness.com. I quote: “Wenker has exhibited [that] bulldog tenacity since he joined Abbott the day after graduating from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He’s steadily moved up the ranks since his first stint as a salesman, currently overseeing the pharmaceutical products division’s largest franchise, with annual sales of nearly $1 billion and a sales and marketing team of more than 1,300 people. But the Southern California native, who once worked in the administration of California Gov. George Deukmejian and as a venture capitalist, is perhaps better known for bringing a fresh look to a conservative company.”

When Jerald verified the rumor, he added, “On more important matters besides career, our family is great. [Wife] Shari continues at Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting, where she is a partner. And Tyler, 8, and Dylan, 6, are great boys and involved in everything. It would be great to hear from Kellogg people. Our home e-mail is winksfive@msn.net.”

Sandy Haviland and Dennis Valdes passed along a photo taken during a recent get-together. Dennis wrote, “Somehow I had forgotten exactly how tall” Sandy is. “Thought I would show you just how much taller, just for the record!”

Sandy was good enough to send some additional news. He wrote, “I’m doing middle-market M&A at Pedersen Kammert & Co., a boutique firm in Connecticut. We’re a six-person firm active in a range of industries that currently includes fruit processing, electronic component manufacturing, building products distribution, and aircraft manufacturing. In theory I have a 12-mile commute to the office. In practice, with recent deals in Belgium, the Czech Republic and Minnesota, I do so much flying that Delta Airlines just gave me 10 tickets to a Mets game (in addition to all the miles). So Kate, Charlie, 4, and Grace, 2, at least get some benefit from my travel. The other benefit is that on trips this year I have gotten to see Charlie Frankel, Dave Arganbright, DeDe and Alex McKinnon, Dennis Valdes, and others. I would love to see anyone passing through the Connecticut/NYC area -- just send an e-mail to me at shaviland@pkco.com.”

Anina Armento wrote to say that she and her husband Dave Pfeiffer ’88 are living in Blue Bell, Pa. “We moved here to get closer to my job at Merck….I had my third baby girl in January 2000, and have been home on extended child-care leave since her birth. Merck allows an 18-month leave of absence. Being a full-time mom has proven to be quite busy and the hardest job I have had -- ever! It has been a difficult transition going from having a full-time career to being home full-time. I still get periodic flashes of panic over what my job prospects will be. And I never imagined myself using my master’s degree to raise children.” I suspect there are a few of us out there who can relate. If you happen to have figured out how to make the transitions, e-mail Anina in the next six months at aninaP1@aol.com (and copy me, if you don’t mind).

Thomas D. Carey wrote to say he’s now executive director for the executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates in Boston. He specializes in serving health-care clients.

Steve Dillingham wrote to give us some news of classmates he’s visited recently. “Howard Weiser (now in St. Louis with wife and two kids, still working for Amgen), Gregg Anderson (was at his wedding last summer), and Andrew and Amy Louise Davis Larson (who we visited while out attending Greg’s wedding).”

Steve and his wife welcomed a “new baby girl born in April -- Eve Hannah, whose big brother, Ian, is now 3. Debbie, my wife, is staying home to care of the kids, and is putting her TV production career on hold. We are living in Montclair, N.J. I am working with the Norwegian Trade Council (the commercial sector of the Norwegian Consulate) as deputy trade commissioner, a semi-diplomatic/senior consultant role to assist Norwegian companies export toward the U.S. My main focus area is marine biotechnology, seafood, and aquaculture. (Remember, I’m the ‘fish guy’?) Anyone wanting to get in contact with me can best do so at my New York office e-mail, sdillingham@ntcny.org, and we can talk fish flakes and extracts!”

Susan Schaberg, M.D. wrote a note that exuded excitement and happiness over her recent marriage to Brian Sampson. They were married June 9 in Edwardsville, Ill., surrounded by friends and family. Susan wrote that she wore the wedding gown her mother wore 40 years ago. The honeymoon was spent in the Canadian Rockies.

Susan’s post-Kellogg path was unusual. “I am (finally!) chief resident in dermatology at UC Irvine,” she writes. When she finishes next June, “we’d like to relocate to Colorado (my No. 1 choice) or northern California (Brian’s No. 1 choice).” Brian is a CPA and Susan hopes that we let her “know if any [Kellogg alums] need financially-oriented CPAs in those locations.”

	Carl Taibl '90 with sons Yuri and C.J. and daughter Olga.

Carl Taibl doubled his family size this summer by hosting two orphans from Kazakhstan. In addition to his wife Pat and son C.J., 3, Carl hosted Olga, 8, and Yuri, 6, along with their escort, Sergei, for several weeks while the children attended a special summer camp.

The children spoke no English, which was countered by the Taibls speaking no Russian, and everyone communicated through pictures, a basic vocabulary cheat-sheet and many local volunteer interpreters. The Taibls themselves became involved with this program through KidSave International. Since Olga and Yuri blended so well with their family, the Taibls couldn’t see sending them back without a commitment, which became even more remarkable upon learning the sibling pair had a two-year-old sister remaining behind in an infant orphanage. The Taibls are currently mired in the international paperwork required to keep the family together by adopting all three kids.

Another classmate took a unique path over the last 11 years. Sid Balachandran wrote, “Since Kellogg, well, there have been some interesting twists and turns, none of which were planned. When we graduated, my father asked me about getting a PhD, and I said, without hesitation, ‘No way, never. This is it. I’m done, which part of ‘no’ don’t you understand.’”

“After six years consulting at Ernst & Young and then Baxter Healthcare Corp, something told me I had been running away from the Balachandran family tradition long enough. (In addition to my father at Kellogg, my uncle is a professor of marketing at Stanford.) So back to school I went, giving up an income and taking the student vow of poverty for five years at HBS. I graduated from Harvard this past June, with a doctorate in business administration in accounting (what else, it’s in the blood).

“I have been a member of the accounting faculty at Columbia University for the past year, and just recently completed my first year of teaching cost accounting to executive MBAs and MBA students. My research is in shareholder value management, which broadly considers how firms are valued using a variety of approaches, and how firms use performance measures to align incentives between employees and shareholders.

“More importantly, on a trip to visit family in India, I met Purnima, who is now my wife of nearly four years. She is completing her residency in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. So on any given weekend, one of us can be seen on the Amtrak or Greyhound between Boston and New York. Traveling back and forth is a bit taxing, but it is nice to be able to call both Boston and New York home. I would love to catch up with classmates in either city (svb34@columbia.edu).”

Sid concluded: “When we left Kellogg I could have never imagined either of these things. Now looking back I can’t see my life without them.”

It was also great to hear from another classmate who has not written to this column since graduation. CK Tsang wrote that he had left Kellogg to join BCG in Hong Kong, and after three years of consulting, felt like he “needed to learn something real, so joined the Imagineering group at Disney (yeah right!). I was there for five-and-a-half years including developing the HK Disneyland. I considered the job as head of business development for Go.com in Asia, but fortunately didn’t take it (Go.com imploded recently).” CK then joined his boss to start-up a private equity office in London, and will be relocating to Australia to help the parent company develop business in China. Before he leaves, CK is helping to get London alum to form a Kellogg alumni club. If you are living in London, please contact CK at ck@culmen.com.

I usually wait until the day before this column’s deadline to compile and submit it because I often receive last minute news from alums. Unfortunately, for this issue, that day landed on Sept. 11. I’m preoccupied with thoughts of so many of our classmates whose work and lives closely touch Manhattan and the East Coast. I’m hopeful, because as of this evening, I have not heard bad news from anybody, but the tragedy is staggering and my best hopes go out to all of you.

Those are the updates for this issue. I have so appreciated hearing from those of you who’ve written. To any others who have just the slightest inkling to write, please know that we all would enjoy catching up with you. Thanks again!