1995

On Sept. 10, I requested updates via e-mail from our class. Many of you were reluctant to share good news in the aftermath of the tragedy. As we all struggle to return to normal life, the following notes about Kellogg ’95 may help keep your mind off recent events. I was in Boston having coffee in the lobby of the Prudential building with Jill Luciani when everything happened on the 11th. It took me three days to get home by cab, bus and rental car. On a personal note, Ben started third grade this past fall and Sam is in pre-K. Ann continues to recuperate from her first marathon.

Suzy Taherian knows of an opportunity for an executive director position for a nonprofit in San Francisco. Send an e-mail note to her for more info at seta@chevron.com.

Bill Sheehan has left Ariba to join Longworth Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on emerging technologies in the Boston area. His personal e-mail address remains wcsheehan@yahoo.com.

Kerry O’Rourke is still in San Francisco! She never thought she would last on the West Coast for more than a few years, but this October she completes her sixth year as a San Francisco resident. She just started a new position as vice president of AOL’s strategic business solutions group. AOL is fortunate to have at least three of us from the class of ’95. Brent Harrison is a teammate in the same group, and Todd Forest is our East Coast corporate buddy who they get to see on trips back to HQ in Dulles, Va. She recently attended Stephen Schwab’s wedding, where she celebrated the big event with several friends from Kellogg.

Claudio Ludovisi happened to be in London on business and was on vacation in Italy when the WTC tragedy hit. “Europe is also affected by a fair bit of paranoia about all this, for good reason — most tourist/famous sites are on alert.” He had several friends in NYC but everyone is OK, so he feels fortunate. “My thoughts and prayers go out to all the Kellogg folks who were affected directly or indirectly by what happened.”

Tracy Heilman was lucky to spend most of the summer working in Maine. It was nice to be “out in the boonies,” enjoying clear air, the lake, and sunshine. Unfortunately, Ray’s job doesn’t allow him the same flexibility to work from home, but he was able to be out there for a few weeks at a time. She is still involved with her new company, Subimo. She is still running a lot, but no marathons lately.

Aileen Sebastian sends a note from Denver. She and her husband, Nerville Koeiman, have a son named Justin, who is two-and-a-half years and (still) has not aspired to being anything above a garbage collector, not that there is anything wrong with that!

Stella Lin checks in after a while. Since she left consulting, she has been doing marketing in the pharmaceutical industry. She left Bristol Myers-Squibb last year and joined Pfizer in NYC. Her job requires her to travel both domestically and internationally, but most of her traveling plans for the rest of the year have been suspended for now.

Liz Wald just got back from five months in Asia. She took a trip to Bhutan and Thailand with Jennifer Colville. She also spent a couple months in India with Frank Hardart. From there it was off to China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Nepal. Made it back to NYC (glad I was out of Pakistan!). Her next stop is likely New Zealand. Up until Sept. 11, it was an incredible fun and interesting year.

Brad Frank got married in May to Deborah Rochlin (now Frank). Kellogg folks at the wedding included: Steve Gregory, Erica Rutkin, Rob DeVirgilio ’96, Barbara Dorf ’97, and Larry Plawsky ’94. In June, he took a new job as brand manager for the Boston Beer Company, so next time you’re out drinking have a Sam Adams. Cheers!

Grant Gieringer has some happy news in the midst of all this national tragedy. He and Sara had a little baby girl (yes, another girl) on Aug. 30. She was 5 pounds, 13 ounces and 19 inches tall. Her name is Schuyler (pronounced sky-ler) Elizabeth Gieringer. She’s doing very well and sisters Claire and Olivia LOVE her. They hold her and kiss her and dress her up like their baby dolls.

Sajal Kohli recently became a partner at McKinsey. He is still in the Chicago office with his wife, Rohini.

Jackie Tario and her husband, Eric, welcomed twin boys Evan and Ben into the world on April 28. They join big brother Carson, who is almost two-and-a-half years old. Two weeks before the twins were born, they moved to Marietta, Ga. She is still at Coke (have been there since school) and is currently director of new products for North America. Eric is teaching chemistry at Georgia State.

Dodie Crawford went down with the ship at Webvan on July 9. She had a great three years there, learned a lot, and rode a roller coaster that she never would have thought possible. She rejoined Butterfields in early August as director of marketing. Butterfields is a traditional auction house headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. Its also fully owned by Ebay (so she hasn’t completely left the Internet behind). She recently took a great trip to Nepal in April with her husband, Peter. They had a great time and took two weeks to do the Everest Base Camp trek and another week around Katmandu seeing the sites.

Phil Yau is still living in SF, though he is now living with his girlfriend, Cyndi Kop who hails originally from Hawaii. They met while working at a start-up. Last September, he joined a venture capital firm called Viventures, which has $750 million under management and invests in early stage companies. “Notwithstanding the difficult economy, life continues to be good. Just got back from traveling in Eastern Europe”

On June 16, Al Falcione married Molly Pedersen in Moraga, Calif. Attending the wedding and dancing to the band were fellow ’95 Kellogians Andrew Tong, Jim Beckemeyer, Leslie and Beto Guajardo, Richard Chino, Michelle Quinones, and Kurt Scherer ’92. After taking an amazing honeymoon in Bora Bora and Moorea, he and Molly are now living in San Francisco. He is currently working as a senior alliance manager at Personify, a profiling and analytics software company.

Henry Caffrey is still in Chicago, and yes his start-up is still in business (although they are slowly circling the bowl). Looks like he is going to have to keep working for a few more years.

Ade Ihromi is now the general manager of Unilever Indonesia Foundation. I am very happy with my current job because my main responsibility is to establish Small and medium enterprises that would form new partnerships with Unilever Indonesia in the area of new channel, commodity supply and finished product accessories. Her personal life is great as well -- her son, Manendra who is almost five and is very happy in his new school, and my husband’s architectural firm seems to start having good projects despite the still crisis situation in Indonesia.

Suzy Taherian and her husband Steve had a beautiful baby girl! She was born on July 31 and weighed 7 pounds,12 onces and was 20 inches long. But she’s growing quickly. She’s already at 11 pounds, 2 onces. That’s 50 percent growth in six weeks! Better than some of the dot-com stocks. Says Suzy: “Any idea how we can get applications for Kellogg class of 2026?”

Jose Prado is doing fine in Miami. No big news; same job, same apartment, same girlfriend.

Vincent Grimaldi’s private equity consultancy is doing better than the economy. It seems that quite a few companies seek to improve their operations efficiency. Vincent has just joined Baruch College’s faculty where he teaches on global trends. He is enjoying life in staying in touch with NU and Kellogg grads (“ah, those dim sum brunches in Chinatown”). Stop by for a drink when you are in New York; his number is 212.864.4113.

Ken Ewell and his wife Lisa welcomed their newest addition Ellery Melissa on May 19. All are well, and the big sister Lindsay, 5, and baby sister are getting along great. On the job front, Mainspring was acquired by IBM effective June 7, and he has been spending much of his time since then with the process of integrating our communications practice with theirs. Fun!

Skip Wipson is “surving the tech meltdown” at Dain Rauscher Wessels.

Julie Brej is still at Diamond (now “DiamondCluster International,” since their merger with the European consulting firm, Cluster Consulting, this past year). She bought a new house in Wicker Park last fall, just south of Bucktown in Chicago. She also got her motorcycle license this summer. Though there is no helmet law in Illinois, she believes in protecting the melon at all times. She has been in touch with Jackie Tario Nickel and ran into Betsy Berns at Arlington National Racetrack. She was promoting her new book on thoroughbred racing. She is learning the ropes as she recently bought into a race horse partnership. (Do I see a theme on “things that go fast” -- definitely the beginnings of my early mid-life crisis. A convertible must be next!

Rebecca Rounsavill and her husband, Bruce are the proud new parents of a baby girl! Ellison Grace was born on June 13. She is most advanced at everything but sleeping.

Sheila Samii Matuscak and her husband, Mark Matuscak, had their first baby—a gorgeous (if she does say so herself) baby boy, Arman (Ari) Joseph Matuscak, 6 pounds, 4 ounces, 20 inches, on June 4! He enjoyed a visit from Ellison (Ellie) Rounsavill (Rebecca Sober Rounsavill and Bruce Rounsavill’s daughter) during Cheri DeMong’s wedding on Aug. 11. They seemed to hit it off very well. Cheri’s wedding was beautiful and well attended by many Kellogg grads.

Simon Rankin now lives and works in London and takes a boat to work on the River Thames.

James Pitt’s little boy, Jake, is almost two-and-a-half and is a source of joy and play for him. Recently, Al Thompson, Sheelah Muhammad, Michele Porter and he traveled to Alabama to visit Vera Brewer who had a relapse of cancer. She was given only a few months to live by her doctor. She has an 18-month-old girl. She was a little tired but her spirit was amazing. She has unshakable faith that its all going to work out either way it goes. He was touched, moved, and inspired by his visit with her. Tenant representation at Jones Lang LaSalle is going great. “Scott Gill and Ken Ewell still fear me after six years.”

Richard Chino and Michelle Quinones got back from a two-week vacation. They went to Amsterdam, Norway and Sweden. The highlight of the trip was seeing the glaciers and fjords in Norway, not to mention running into an NU alumni group on our fjord “cruise.”

David Mathias writes: “Well, this update is a little late...but better late than never! I had the good fortune to marry a wonderful woman, Devara Rodriguez, back on July 22, 2000. It was a beautiful sunny California day with Dan Kelly playing the roles of Best Man and Chief Prankster as well as the following ’95 Kellogg alums attending: (Pictures were withheld to protect the innocent!)

After the wedding, Devara and I toured Europe on our honeymoon. Paris, Prague, Luxembourg, Brugge. But one of our favorite stops was the days we spent in Brussels with another classmate Philip and Sophie Laval and their kids Cloe and Emma. Once we settled back into the career grind, I joined eLogic Corporation in Los Angeles in early November. eLogic is a Web site ASP specializing in hosted information solutions geared toward companies with loads of content to be presented and managed. eLogic is a wholly owned sub of Reed Eslevier and Cahners Business Publications.

“Things are still going nicely down in Chile for Claudia and Patrick Meynial and their three kids. Southern hemisphere winter made little champs out of the eldest two on Santiago’s nearby ski slopes. Claudia started a new venture last year, an alternative gym/self-development center, and last month it reached break-even according to plan. Patrick is now leading his firm’s office in Santiago. They’re trying to schedule a Kellogg weekend mid-way between Santiago and Buenos Aires with the ’95 class member Alejandro and Rachel Daireaux and their kids.”

Wendy Yanowitch is enjoying life in San Francisco, seeing a bunch of Kellogg folks regularly and doing some consulting to non-profits. One in particular, Just Think Foundation (justthink.org) does great work teaching media literacy and creative production to kids in underserved communities.

John Atkins is still with McKinsey in Dallas doing Petroleum, Electric Power and Economic Development work. He spent three months consulting in Beijing this summer -- it was a great experience, but he was happy to return home. The Asbury House (i.e., Melian, Clevenger, Cardwell, Hendrix and me) are planning a reunion at Clev’s house in Wichita, Kansas, in the fall, and the Annual Kellogg Golf Outing is scheduled for Austin, Texas, in October. It will be nice to catch up with some of the old gang on these two trips.

Thomas Duester is now a free-lance consultant in Amsterdam.

Brenda Jacroux reports that “As my family life revs up, my professional life is paring down. I am now working three-quarters time in product marketing for Qpass, a mobile commerce firm in Seattle. I love this emerging market. You really have to try paying for your vending machine soda with your cell phone. Her husband, Richard, is working for Metrophones, a specialty service firm in telecommunications. Her daughter Eva is now one-and-a-half-years-old and running everywhere. Her favorite questions are “What’s that?” and “Where’d it go?” over and over and over. She’s such a blast.

Todd and Christy Forest '95 with son Tasman, born Sept. 3.

Todd and Christy Forest report that Tasman Robert Forest arrived on Sept. 3, and is a healthy 7 pounds, 1 ounce (“Robert, after my father who passed a few years ago, and Tasman for the many wonderful times we’ve spent in Australia and New Zealand over the last six years.”) Both mother and baby are doing just fine!

Mark Ball and his wife Patience and recently moved back to the D.C. area. Their new address is also subject to change in the next six months or so

Art Muldoon moved to NYC in the fall. He is still at Corbis and simply relocated to expand the business operations of my project by leveraging Corbis’ existing New York office. He is still overseeing the marketing and development activities back in Seattle, but New York is now home.

John Martin wants to let everyone know that he has accepted the position of chief operating officer with a company called Medrium. Medrium is a small, but growing San Francisco-based company which provides low cost, Web-based services for healthcare practice management.

A correction to the last Kellogg World. I received this note from Jan McDougal. “Thanks for getting the news of our new baby Eric into Kellogg World, but just for the record I’m married to Steve McDougal who was also class of ’95! We’re having a good laugh at him being listed as Steve Petersen (my maiden name). Anyway, I hope you’re having as much fun with Ben and Sam as we are with Kevin and Eric!”

John Haegele has decided to leave Yahoo! After seven years in the sports business development game, he has decided it’s time to find the next challenge.

Elyse Spector Kalmans writes: “Our second daughter, Kendall, was born on Aug. 16, joining big sister, Aerin. With two children 16 months apart, we are very busy. I’m on maternity leave until the end of the year, but will return to Enron part-time to continue managing our community relations department.”

Raj Shah wanted to take a second to let us know that he recently joined Earthlink, Inc. as their director of marketing, based in Atlanta which is their global HQ. In particular, he will be leading the marketing of their newly formed wireless group.