Class Notes

1966-FT

Bruce Winograd

Bruce has been retired for more than 26 years and enjoys his 14 grandchildren. He has enjoyed his season tickets to Northwestern football and women’s basketball for over 57 years, and he was excited for the football game against Nebraska in Dublin, Ireland, this past August.

1968-FT

Neill Brownstein

Neill reports that he is winding down Footprint Ventures, a fund he started in 2006. He started a career in venture capital right after graduation, joining the NU team at Allstate Insurance Company’s VC department. He joined Bessemer in 1970, then founded Bessemer Venture Partners in 1973. Neill thanks Northwestern for the tools and the contacts that sparked his VC career.

1970-FT

Michael Mooney

In 1970, Mike received his MBA at commencement on a Saturday, then traveled home and received his draft notice in the mail on Monday. Thirty days later, he became a U.S. Army private and was discharged two years later. He went on to become a CPA with Touche Ross and later returned to his family’s auto dealerships. He has sold the businesses but still enjoys going to work daily at the dealership in DeKalb, Illinois. Recently his wife became an ordained Lutheran pastor. The couple’s daughter recently finished medical school and is in residency at the University of Wisconsin Hospital.

1974-FT

Sam Ballam

After completing a successful career in finance and investments in 2015, Sam recently returned to his boyhood hobby of coin collecting. Over the past year, he completed extensive coursework and multiple exams, including a three-hour, 200-question final exam, thereby earning his Numismatic Scholar Diploma from the American Numismatic Association.

1974-FT

David Martinov

Dave is living in Clearwater, Florida, and wishes all fellow grads and friends would get in touch. Go Lightning!

1974-FT

Mark Newton

Since retiring from Swedish Covenant Hospital, Mark has been working with Driehaus Private Equity and Scale Healthcare, he reports. In the past year, he was also elected as a trustee for the Village of Bull Valley and the Land Conservancy of McHenry County. “Retirement has been busy!”

1975-FT

John W. Bluford

John recently concluded the 10th Bluford Healthcare Leadership Institute. Held annually in Kansas City, the institute brings together undergraduate students to learn from national and local leaders in a didactic/experiential program. “We have placed over 90 young executives/providers into the field thus far,” says John. “We hope to get Kellogg involved by offering a glide path to graduate school for our scholars.”

1975-PhD

Nikhilesh and Ruby Roy Dholakia

Nikhilesh ’75 PhD and Ruby Roy ’76 PhD met and married while in the doctoral program. They have each spent more than four decades teaching, including some time in India and more than three decades at the University of Rhode Island. They have also served as visiting faculty in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Japan and New Zealand. Ruby has conducted research on social marketing and consumer behavior, with a focus on technology in the home and e-shopping. Nikhilesh’s research has focused on globalization, markets and culture linkages from a macro lens. Now professors emeritus, they relocated to Hollister in California’s Central Valley. Their son and his partner live in New York City. Their daughter, her husband and their two sons — 5 and 3 years old — live in Rhode Island. The Dholakias report that their family bonds create a lot of business for the airlines.

1975-FT

Qung Go

Qung attended Kellogg Reunion in April 2022 with Class of 1975 classmates Larry Christian, Ken Eng, Dave Hilliard, Eric Wiedenmann and Pat Downes. Highlights included seeing each other again, meeting Dean Cornelli and being wowed by the Global Hub. Qung says, “Looking forward to the 50th Reunion in 2025!”

1976-FT

David Poe

David is now retired from a career in management consulting and public company board work. He now chairs the board of a privately held geothermal engineering company in the U.K. that is building a geothermal power plant and extracting newly discovered lithium from its wells. David lives in Santa Rosa, California, where he enjoys flying, racing cars and golfing. He also plays in a local orchestra and symphonic wind ensemble.

1978-FT

Iris Newman Stone

Having retired in 2016, Iris ’76, ’78 MBA and her husband, Patrick, recently marked their fifth anniversary of being full-time nomads. Iris says their passion for travel has taken them on a never-ending international life journey. They enjoy the adventure of exploring new locales and revisiting previous destinations, and they love connecting with others who are also traveling!

1979-FT

George Keagle

After 30 wonderful and rewarding years with Lockheed Martin working in employee compensation and benefits, George is happily retired and living in Georgetown, Texas, about 25 miles north of Austin. It is a lovely, small-town community with close access to plenty of hiking and biking. He travels frequently to Maryland and Long Island to visit adult children and grandchildren.

1979-FT

Paul Misniak

After more than 40 years in direct marketing, Paul has retired and looks forward to the next chapter in his life.

1979-E&W

Jerry Thode

Jerry serves on the boards of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality (where he previously served as board chair) and the Christ Cathedral Facilities Corporation in Orange County, California.

1980-FT

Grant Gordon

Grant has continued to develop his philanthropic work to alleviate poverty in the U.K. with a particular focus on children. In 2021 he co-founded Thrive at Five, a new collective impact initiative to improve early childhood outcomes in disadvantaged communities. In his leisure time, Grant published “Louise Adventure: A Round-the-World Sailing Odyssey,” a travelogue inspired by the navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville that charts the story of his own round-the-world sailing expedition covering 55,000 nautical miles from 2013 to 2017.

1981-FT

Allen Shechtman

Allen ’79, ’81 MBA writes in with an update for his classmates, saying: “I'm sure you have all been waiting to hear from me these 40 plus years. Ahem. Attending Kellogg right out of college with a degree in Spanish Lit, and no business experience, I never felt I quite fit in at Kellogg, but I ended up following what I think is a conventional path for many of us.

“After graduation, I joined W.W. Grainger, Inc., and stayed on for 19 years. I left as the director of corporate identity. It was a great run. During the mid-80’s, an old friend and I began a commercial real estate investment, syndication, and property management company on the side, called The Legend Group, LLC, here in Chicago. I have been self-employed there since leaving Grainger. At this time, we are selling off our portfolio so that I can fully retire.

“From 2000 —2005 I wrote and team-taught a graduate certificate marketing course at The University of Chicago Graham School called Branding Your Corporation.

“In 2015 I wrote and published a novel called The Color of Character under the pseudonym of Glen Shuld. (Buy it on Amazon!).

“For the past 16 years I have been happily partnered with Stephen Wright. We live in Chicago on the Gold Coast, and spend much of the time at our vacation home in South Haven, Michigan. I remain in contact with most of my original study group at Kellogg: Justine Knizeski, Larry Mack, Joe Kohn, and Barbara Goodman Shovers. I’m happy to say they are all well.

“A highlight of the past years was my participation in celebrating the Cubs World Series victory. Through a friend of mine I was able to attend all seven games, and then ride on one of the trollies in the victory parade! It was surreal. I was then allowed to hoist the trophy up standing in front of the venerable scoreboard at Wrigley Field. It was quite a day.
I am on Linked In if anyone wants to say hi.”

1982-FT

Tom Williamson

Tom ’81, ’82 MBA recently retired from Deloitte Consulting after 35 years as an M&A principal. He intends to take some time off, do some traveling and then do some skills-based volunteering with groups supporting people with intellectual disabilities and economically/socially disadvantaged youths and young adults.

1982-FT

Rick Zurow

Rick says hello from his home in Portland, Oregon. He continues to work in nonprofit major gifts and planned giving fundraising. When not working, he spends time with his wife, Debbie, and their beloved 3-year-old wheaten terrier, Bailee. Recently, Rick and Debbie became proud grandparents of four ducklings who live with Rick’s daughter, Emily, at their “Quackers Compound.”

1983-PhD

Dennis W. Rook

After 30 years at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, Dennis retired in 2017. While at Kellogg, Dennis was privileged to work with Professor Sidney Levy, who inspired his work on consumption rituals, impulse buying and qualitative research methods. Dennis spends his time in Los Angeles, in Palm Springs and — more than he would like — at LAX.

1983-FT

John Sullivan

John recently wrapped up a Wall Street career in life sciences investment research, including 16 years as an analyst/DOR at SVB Leerink. John is now a venture partner with Two Bear Capital, a biotechnology VC firm (send your seed/series A ideas). “Five grown kids, a couple of whom are married. Long-suffering wife inexplicably hanging in there with me. Still devastatingly handsome and impressively humble. Life is good!”

1984-FT

Lynnette Barnes Hinch

Lynnette is now the senior marketing director for the Hefty EnergyBag program at Reynolds Consumer Products. This program advances the circular economy through the diversion of plastic waste and conversion into higher-value resources. She is responsible for the market expansion of the program and external brand engagement. Most recently, she served as the senior director of Reynolds Innovation and led the development of new products and sustainable solutions across many of the company’s product categories.

1984-FT

Mary Madick

Mary lives outside Detroit, where she is president and CEO of US Health Holdings, a subsidiary of Ascension Insurance. Ascension, with facilities in 26 states, is the largest Catholic health ministry in the world. Mary and her team introduced Ascension Personalized Care, a full ACA plan sponsored by Ascension, with operations growing to six states.

1984-FT

Mark Mosch

Mark ’82, ’84 MBA recently completed the fundraising for his sixth private equity real estate fund, AndMark Investment Fund VI. Since AndMark launched in 2015, Mark has raised nearly $325 million in equity and has handled in aggregate more than $1.1 billion in transactions. AndMark focuses on investments in high-yielding multifamily properties in secondary markets in the United States.

1984-FT

Luis Vilatela

Luis was recently named president of the sustainability ESG committee of Aleatica Mexico, an infrastructure concessions company owned by the Australian fund IFM. He is also CEO of the Spanish sustainability consulting company Valora Consultores in Mexico. Luis has had a 35-year banking career at Fondo Mexico/Merrill Lynch, Citibank, BofA and HSBC, where he worked for 22 years — mostly in Mexico but including a three-year assignment in London in the capital markets area, and an eight-year assignment as CEO of HSBC in Madrid.

1985-PhD

Güliz Ger

A faculty member at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, since 1986, Güliz now lives in Istanbul. She self-styles as a “slow professor” and teaches part time. Known for her research on consumption in the global sociocultural context, Güliz is also a faculty mentor at Skema Business School in France. She has served as a visiting professor at many international universities, and her family is global too: Her two sons and their families live in Panama and Brazil. Her three grandsons — ages 12, 3 and 7 months — are sources of immense joy.

1985-FT

Theodore “Ted” F. Poatsy Jr.

Ted was recently elected to the executive committee of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors. Ted is executive of Premier Operating and Technical Strategy Yields Inc. and an adjunct professor at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. He lives with his wife, Mary Anne, in Salfordville, Pennsylvania.

1985-FT

Quentin Price

Quentin shares that he is retiring this year. “I owe much to my Northwestern MBA! All the best to everyone.”

1985-FT

David Weber

David retired recently after a long and happy career at Wells Fargo. “I imagine that I am one of the very few people from our class who stayed with the same company that recruited me directly from Kellogg,” he writes. David and his wife have two grown sons — one in New York City and the other in San Francisco — who are enjoying life and making their parents proud of the solid, ethical adults they have become. You can find David serving on two nonprofit boards, toggling between living in wine country and San Francisco, and outfoxing trout in streams across the West.

1986-FT

Ann Hewitt

Ann married Jon Gordon on Jan. 1, 2020, at the historic Chicago Athletic Association. Party: dinner and dancing to a big band. Weather: mild and sunny. Lifelong friends: many. Masks: zero. Guests: Larry Jakus ’79 MBA, Pete Fawcett ’84 MBA, Ned Kennedy ’85 MBA, Charlie Baker ’86 MBA, Christina Schmidt Fawcett ’86 MBA, Hughes Bakewell ’86 MBA, Julie Moroney Kennedy ’86 MBA, Lauren Schadt Baker ’86 MBA, Melissa Bergquist Rotatori ’86 MBA and Doug Rotatori ’87 MBA (and a few non-Kellogg people for diversity). Ann and Jon live in Winnetka, Illinois.

1986-FT

Anthony Mann

Tony shares that his son Strauss, an ice hockey player, was a goalie for Team USA in the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Strauss recently signed his first National Hockey League contract with the San Jose Sharks.

1987-FT

Glenn Sykes

Glenn shares that he and Lisa Lombardi ’87 took advantage of suddenly living closer and got together twice in 2021. First, a summer weekend at Lisa’s home on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, where Lisa and Glenn were joined by Glenn’s partner, Dirk Allen ’91 MS. This was followed by an autumn weekend at Glenn and Dirk’s home in Philadelphia. Glenn said it was great to catch up and share memories of their time at Kellogg.

1987-FT

Lee Wright

The Pursuit of History, a nonprofit organization Lee founded in 2019, announced the return of History Camp Boston, the largest event of its kind in the country. The August event was sold out and drew 500-plus people from throughout the Northeast and beyond. The organization will also continue to host virtual events that began during the pandemic, including weekly author discussions and the annual online History Camp America conference.

1988-2Y

Dee M. Robinson

The Kellogg alumni network reaches far and wide, including at this year’s PGA Championship in Tulsa in May. Dee is founder and CEO of Robinson Hill Inc. and a board director for PGA Reach, the charitable foundation of PGA of America. Scott Filstrup ’67 MBA is president and CEO of The Consultants Ltd. Together, they proudly represented Kellogg at the event.

1989-FT

Ron Boninger

Ron moved back to Scottsdale, Arizona, last year after retiring as CEO of Carbitex, a producer of flexible carbon fiber. Ron believes technology can help solve problems caused by greenhouse gases and other environmental pollutants. Ron is now seeking to apply his resources and his expertise in startup and small-business growth to a startup in the decarbonization or climate-solution area.

1989-FT

Steve Carnes

Steve has been semi-retired since 2008 and living in the Netherlands since 2013, averaging about six months of work and six months of play per year. He’s alternating between M&A and project management. Steve reports he spent the pandemic as a PM on a COVID-19 vaccine factory project for Johnson & Johnson in the Netherlands, and he is now working on the expansion of Pfizer manufacturing facilities in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He’s happy to have spent time recently with classmate Dave Falstrup ’89 MBA.

1989-FT

Steve Frazier

Steve is a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Tire Corporation, Toronto; a board member and adviser for Pacifiko.com, Guatemala City; and a senior adviser at McKinsey & Company.

1989-FT

Skyles Runser

Sky and Hilary Glann ’89 MBA continue to volunteer — Sky as a high school tutor/mentor, basketball coach and board member for organizations serving first-generation college students, and Hilary as a climate activist and firearms safety advocate.

1990-FT

Juergen Meffert

Juergen recently retired from McKinsey & Company after 33 years. He is focusing now on his tech startup portfolio, leading the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft as CEO and serving as senior adviser to McKinsey and Atreus.

1990-FT

David Packham

David is celebrating five years of bringing the world “pure music” — original songs recorded on an iPhone in just one take — via his YouTube music channel. “It’s fun to share songs that inspire,” David says. Search YouTube: David Packham, pure music, The Law of Zen.

1990-FT

Mark Slitt

Mark retired from health insurer Cigna, where he was a senior communications adviser, providing strategic counsel to U.S. commercial business leaders. Prior to that he was director of public relations at Harcourt Assessment, after holding marketing, communications and international planning positions at American Airlines.

1990-FT

Allison Plyer

After serving as chair of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Census Scientific Advisory Committee, Allison is now co-chairing the Census Quality Reinforcement Task Force of the National Conference on Citizenship. The task force brings together 200 data scientists, former Census Bureau directors, attorneys and civil rights advocates to account for people miscounted in the 2020 Census to improve annual population estimates used to distribute $1.5 trillion per year in federal funding.

1990-FT

Jim Young

Jim and his daughter Katie ’26 spent six weeks in Fiji working for MicroDreams/SPBD-Fiji, a microfinance organization led by Greg Casagrande ’90 MBA. Greg launched his first such organization in 2000 in Samoa and today operates five in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, serving more than 25,000 microcredit clients.

1991-FT

Janice Williams Oliver

Janice’s beauty-industry startup, MisTee Wants To Know Inc., was the winner of the P&G Beauty/WWD media grant. She was also accepted into Graham & Walker’s Catalyst program. She is currently looking for funding and has raised $100,000 toward a goal of $600,000.

1991-FT

Leigh Radford

Leigh recently retired from Procter & Gamble after 31 years. She most recently held the position of senior vice president and founder of P&G Ventures, an early-stage startup studio within the company. During her career at P&G, Leigh built multiple $1 billion-plus businesses across various geographies and categories. She is currently an active board member of the E.W. Scripps Company; VF Foundry, a startup-venture arm of the VF Corporation; Fast Studios, a media startup company; and Goodwill Industries International.

1991-FT

Kathy Jo “K-Jo” (Thompson) Van

K-Jo and classmate Kelly (Hotchkiss) Zehfuss ’91 reconnected at Superstition Mountain, Arizona, to enjoy the sunshine and explore the sights. K-Jo now lives in Arizona, and Kelly frequently visits with her husband, Michael, and kids. 

1992-FT

Vinod Dasari

Vinod ’92 MEM, MBA shares that he “retired” from corporate life in August 2021, most recently serving as CEO of Royal Enfield. “I’m now running a not-for-profit hospital with my wife,” Vinod says. “We invested our life savings, and now it’s time to give back to society. I’m also working a bit as operating partner with Advent International PE and doing quite a bit of investing and mentoring of startups. It’s an interesting chapter in life — for the first time, I feel like I have control over my time!!”

1992-FT

Axel Wieandt

Axel was back on campus this spring, teaching Blockchain Technology, Digital Assets and the Future of Finance as an adjunct professor of finance. He discussed bitcoin, ethereum, crypto investing, central bank digital currencies and decentralized finance with the classes of 2022 and 2023. His course would not have been possible without the contributions of great guest speakers from Drone Energy, Bitbond, Finoa, Loop Crypto and Goldman Sachs.

1994-FT

Joel Bosch

Joel and Allan are comfortably settled in Valencia, Spain, enjoying retirement and the European lifestyle. Joel writes, “Let us know if you’re in the area.”

1994-FT

Patrick McQueeny

Patrick joined Prairie States Enterprises Inc. as chief financial officer. Headquartered in Chicago, Prairie States is a national third-party healthcare administrator. Prior to his new position, Patrick was corporate treasurer with retailer Claire’s Stores Inc. 

1994-E&W

Laura Monahan

Chair of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, Laura received her DNP and MSN degrees from UIC. She has received numerous grants totaling $2,937,000, and she has published nine articles, one book chapter, five lectures and eight posters. She has also created nine new courses and six interprofessional education programs for medicine, nursing, pharmacy and psychology students.
 

1994-FT

Per Ohstrom

Per was named partner at Chief Outsiders, a consulting firm that provides fractional CMOs for small and midmarket companies. The business is growing, as many companies choose to access deep experience at an affordable cost.

1994-FT

Paul Stratta

Paul writes that Benjy Robins MBA ’94, a former Association of Tennis Professionals tour executive, has joined Paul’s scale-up iPlayMe2 Tennis. Based in San Martin, California, Benjy runs the tennis program at the CordeValle Luxury Resort and is now advising iPlayMe2 through its dramatic expansion across the tennis club and teaching pro B2B segments. Paul has also connected alums Eric Eichmann ’94 MBA and Chris Jogis ’94 MBA to make this a unicorn-in-the-making! Chris Abate ’94 MBA lends his passion for tennis, too.

1994-E&W

Andy Tometich

Andy was recently appointed CEO, president and a member of the board of directors of Quaker Houghton, a global leader in industrial process fluids headquartered in the Philadelphia area.

1995-FT

Paige Jernigan

Paige asks all those working in the entrepreneurial/startup space in the middle 20 U.S. states — the heartland — to be in touch with stories that can be highlighted by Heartland Forward, a “think and do” tank based in Bentonville, Arkansas.

1995-E&W

Shekar Shetty

In March 2019 Shekar co-founded Clear Scientific, a company that is pioneering novel therapies for life-threatening and debilitating conditions caused by an excess of harmful substances in the body. 

1996-FT

Michael Gruber

Michael is happy to announce that his company, Pura Industries, has received licenses to sell cannabis for adult use in both New York and New Jersey. The company is bringing together leading brands from across the country to enter those markets, along with financing and real estate partners to build out its cultivation and manufacturing assets. Michael also manages the Salveo Capital fund, which is focused on the cannabis sector, and the JLS Fund, which is focused on the psychedelics sector.

1996-FT

Shankar Kiru

Shankar ’96 MEM, MBA writes, “Hope everyone is doing well! Getting through the pandemic has given me a greater sense of purpose and fulfillment. What was expected to be a brief stop in the Detroit area after Kellogg has turned out to be longest place we’ve ever lived, now with the sibling rivalry of our kids continuing at Michigan and Michigan State. The work with Stellex Capital is rewarding, building companies that are enriching, defensible and scalable. If you’re in the Detroit area, we would love to see you!”

1997-FT

Andy Scott

Andy ’90, ’97 MBA had a blast reconnecting with classmates at Reunion in May. For the past few years, he has been working as an executive coach and facilitating CEO peer groups. He is currently assembling several peer groups of Kellogg alums who are leading rapidly scaling startups. Reunion was a great reminder that Kellogg alums are very high performers with low egos.

1998-FT

Bill Eldredge

Bill recently joined Nexamp, a leading community solar firm, as vice president of data management. Bill and his wife, Kate, continue to live in Duxbury, Massachusetts, with two very big dogs. They have daughters pursuing various medical-related degrees at Boston College, Northeastern and UMass Amherst, and a son who is heading to Northeastern to study engineering. Bill recently caught up with classmates Bill Lockwood MBA ’98 and Rob Fawcett MBA ’98.

1998-FT

Titi Falusi-Cole

Titi writes, “A new phase for us. Empty nesters, part-time NYC residents, still in the industry at Citi. Hope everyone is well and embracing all that life has to offer. Looking forward to reconnecting at our 25-year reunion!”

1998-FT

Rachel Fleishman

Rachel left Hong Kong at the end of 2021, just before a wave of COVID-19 infections slammed the city. She and her husband, Eli, landed in ... Evanston! The move was motivated by the joint desire to put her sustainability skills to use in the U.S. and to be close to aging parents. Rachel is excited to have joined HowGood, a SAAS sustainability intelligence startup with the power to help revolutionize how we source, use and dispose of products. She encourages classmates to stop by when you’re in town for a great meal, amazing wine and a dose of sustainability ambition!

1998-FT

Derek Gaskins

Derek was recently featured in CORE Magazine’s list of the “2022 CORE 100 Most Influential Blacks Today.” He also was featured on the cover of KIND magazine as the person of the week in the May 23rd, 2022 issue.

1998-FT

Chris Tomseth

Chris is the co-founder and CMO of SkySquad, a tech-enabled provider of airport assistance. The company has raised $1 million in funding and has expanded to seven airports, most recently Salt Lake City.

1998-E&W

David Urbanczyk

David is executive director for administration, external affairs, at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, where he has spent the past 17 years. He and his family have moved back to Chicago after nine years in Madison, Wisconsin.

1999-FT

Hank Adams

Hank’s startup, Rise Gardens, helps people grow their own food year-round, and one of the company’s products was featured in the 2022 Men’s Health Tech Awards. The company, which focuses on indoor, hydroponic gardening, raised its Series A with True Ventures, Listen Ventures and Amazon Alexa joining TELUS Ventures. The company stays close to Kellogg with multiple student projects developing customer segmentations and retail growth strategies. 

1999-FT

Marina Hood

As a life coach, Marina helps people create and achieve their vision for an amazing and fulfilling life. Her website (marinahood.com) has information about her one-on-one life coaching, meditation instruction and classes in emotional balance, resilience and positive education. This year, Marina has enjoyed giving back to the Northwestern community by mentoring undergraduate students in the Affinity Leaders and Learners (ALL) Mentorship Program.

1999-FT

Jill Hungsberg

Jill reports that she and Paul Anfinsen ’94, ’99 MBA recently founded Empathos Group, a consultancy focused on transforming workplace culture through the power of empathy. The firm collaborates with organizational leaders and culture stewards to define and implement a vision for empathy in the workplace. It drives cultural change through empathy skills training workshops, presentations and individual coaching grounded in unique insights from the behavioral sciences.

1999-FT

Brent Powers

A group of Kellogg friends recently gathered in Denver to celebrate Brent’s 50th birthday. Celebrating the big day with Brent were Greg Graeber ’89, ’99 MBA; Jim Nollsch ’02 MBA; and Jamie Sabatier ’94 MBA.

2000-FT

Ken Bower

Ken enjoyed visiting Evanston for Reunion Weekend and was amazed by the phenomenal building by the lake. Ken spent some time with classmate Darpan Kapadia ’00 MBA and Darpan’s daughter, who is looking at Northwestern for undergrad. Ken is still managing Clayton Financial Group, a boutique wealth management firm in St. Louis that he and his brother founded in 2015.

2001-FT

Elly Andriopoulou

In addition to her role as president and managing director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Elly was recently appointed nonexecutive board member of Alpha Bank, one of the largest banks in Greece. She lives in Athens with her two daughters.

2001-E&W

Barbara Arango

Barbara joined the Illinois Park and Recreation Association as executive director in January 2022. IPRA serves more than 2,500 park, recreation and conservation professionals throughout the state and is a national leader in providing premier education, networking and resources.

2001-E&W

Rey Bosita

Rey is currently finishing year 20 as a spine surgeon at Texas Back Institute in Dallas. He says his Kellogg MBA has been very useful in his service as a board member of Fuse Medical (FZMD) and as chairman of the board of managers at Texas Health Hospital Rockwall. He enjoys life with his wife and four sons, fencing and baseball tournament trips with his family, and his never-ending quest to find the perfect bowl of ramen.

2001-FT

Teaque Lenahan

After leading the insights and innovation function at Zillow for two years during the pandemic, Teaque accepted a strategy role in the consulting arm of Gensler, the world’s largest architecture and design firm. He is excited to apply his experience in strategy, brand and human-centered design to the built environment and digital experiences around us, especially pertaining to the shifting era around the “future of work” and how we live, work and play. He and Amy and their daughter Tierney (14) still live on Bainbridge Island, Washington. 

2001-FT

Brian Poger

Brian recently joined Frazier Healthcare Partners as an executive in residence focused on acquiring companies that reduce the cost of healthcare. In small-world stories, he joins Shad Weaver ’01 MBA, whose company was previously owned by Frazier, and sought advice from Kelly Cornelis ’01 MBA and Chris Freeburg ’01 MBA about the private-equity world — the beauty of the Kellogg ohana (family). With mixed emotions, Brian, Silvia, Daniela and Adriana are returning to San Francisco after retreating to Hawaii during the height of COVID-19.

2001-E&W

Mohammad Shamim

Mohammad was recently appointed to the board of directors of UNFI, a Fortune 150 company and the largest distributor of natural and organic foods in the U.S. and Canada. Last year, he was promoted to executive vice president and chief information and technology officer at CarMax. He has been leading the digital transformation journey at CarMax and positioning the company to disrupt its $1 trillion-plus industry. In 2020 Mohammad received a CIO Leadership Award from MIT Sloan, and in 2021 Forbes identified him as a “CIO Next” innovative technology leader.

2002-E&W

Bharat Kakar

Bharat opened his second Fitopia fitness studio in two years in Cincinnati. Using fitness principles based on electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), Fitopia strength-trains athletes and novices alike and provides a whole-body workout in just 20 minutes.

2003-FT

Chris Dupre

Chris is pleased to announce that he has partnered with Joel Stanwood ’10 MBA to form StoneTree Investment Partners, a Dallas-based middle-market private-equity firm focused on industrial companies that will bring together the best practices of their prior firms and their 25-plus years of collective private-equity experience. The firm’s motto is, “Transforming industrials. Investing in people.” 

2004-FT

Jeff Chesnut

Jeff was appointed CFO of Loyalty Ventures. He celebrated the company’s spin-out by opening the trading day at the Nasdaq stock exchange.

2004-E&W

Christopher McClure

Chris is a partner with Crowe, a global advisory and accounting firm, and has more than 25 years of experience assisting clients with regulatory and compliance needs. He is the new national leader of Crowe’s ESG Center of Excellence, a multidisciplinary team that will coordinate across the firm to bring customized solutions to clients facing an unprecedented demand for ESG strategy, data, reporting and transparency.

2006-FT

Matthew Forti

Matthew ’00, ’06 MBA says he was thrilled to see so many wonderful Class of 2006 classmates at Reunion. “For those who missed out, our 20th awaits!” Matthew says he’s eternally grateful for his classmates’ incredible support of the One Acre Fund.

2006-FT

Krista Hensel

Krista has been appointed CEO of UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky. Krista and her family are relocating to the Louisville metro area from Minnesota. They would be excited to welcome any Kellogg friends to enjoy the bourbon trail or some horse racing. Krista also hopes to connect with Kellogg alumni throughout Kentucky. 

2006-FT

Brian Schneider

Brian and Mary Stewart Malone welcomed Charles and Georgina in July 2021. Beatrice and Eleanor — also twins — are enjoying being big sisters. The family resides in New York City. 

2007-CERT

Masateru Ban

Masateru, who participated in the Kellogg Executive Leadership Development Program, writes that he has been working for Deloitte since 2000. 

2007-CERT

Alana Sandel

Alana was born in Odessa, Ukraine. When the war started in early 2022, Alana mobilized her friends in the U.S. and Ukraine to support the mobile medical expeditions program through her charity For Well-Being. The program focuses on treating the medical conditions of civilians, including children, by deploying mobile medical teams. Alana welcomes support from the Kellogg community to support this important initiative. More information is available here.

2007-E&W

Parvati Tiwari

Parvati launched the Yuvaan Tiwari Foundation in 2021 in memory of her son Yuvi, who lost his life to brain cancer at age 3. The 501(c)(3) foundation funds research to find a cure for fatal pediatric brain cancers, while supporting patients and families along their journey. In its first year since inception, the foundation has committed $2 million to accelerate research and bring more promising treatments to patients as quickly as possible. 

2008-FT

Will Johnson

Will recently crossed the five-year threshold as CEO of The Harris Poll, one of the nation's most-enduring public opinion firms. Since taking over in 2017, Johnson has transformed the company into a widely sourced arbiter of culture and societal trends that provides insights and advice for big businesses such as Amazon, Ford, Mastercard and PwC, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2009-FT

Prateek Aneja

Prateek launched his own investment firm, Infinitive Capital, which focuses on impact-oriented investments in education, healthcare and workforce development.

2009-E&W

Aravind Durai

Tech executive Aravind drew upon his depth of experience in robotics and automation to found Chicago-area startup RoboChef, which he leads as CEO. A robotic smart food service platform, the company is working with national brands to develop their automation systems. RoboChef’s first product — Smart Cookie, a robot that bakes warm, personalized gourmet cookies — launched in late 2021. 

2009-E&W

Anisha Madan

Anisha is CFO at Emids, a digital engineering company serving the healthcare industry. She recently completed the Nashville Healthcare Council’s prestigious Healthcare Fellows program, an immersive experience that further enhanced Anisha’s commitment, passion and innovative ideas for solving healthcare’s problems.

2010-E&W

Raghu Vasu

Raghu was recognized with a 2021 Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award from the Asian American Business Development Center. Based in New York, Raghu currently serves as a senior vice president of digital marketing and technology at U.S. Bank and as a board member at JobsFirstNYC, a youth development organization.

2011-FT

Erin Amico

Erin was elected president and CEO of the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum on June 8. Amico is the first African American CEO to lead the 165-year-old institution. The Nature Museum is Chicago’s oldest museum and a leading scientific institution. Its mission is to be a spark that ignites a sense of wonder about nature, an understanding of science and a desire to protect the natural world. Amico also recently published a children’s book, “Three Fairies,” available on Amazon and at other retailers.

2011-FT

Maribeth Gainard

Maribeth ’11 JD, MBA and her husband, Hal Goltz, welcomed their second child, John Seymour Gainard Goltz, on March 16, 2021. JS joins big sister Josephine (age 2) at home in TriBeCa, New York.

2011-FT

Stacey Kepler

Stacey had a baby girl named Megan in August 2021. Stacey recently joined Gilead in Foster City, California, as director of R&D operations in the company’s biomarkers and clinical pharmacology groups. 

2012-FT

Hannah Gay Keao

On Nov. 2, 2021, Hannah won election to the Edgewater, Colorado, City Council. She received the most votes in the city and some of the most in recent election history, and her victory was fueled by the support of several Kellogg classmates. She looks forward to serving her community and working toward a more equitable and sustainable future for all. More information on her campaign and service is at hannahforedgewater.com. 

2012-FT

Evan Sharp and Tarra Sharp

Evan ’12 MBA and Tarra ’13 MBA welcomed their first child, daughter Ellis Jean Sharp, in April. Ellis, Tarra and the entire family are happy and healthy and enjoying this new phase of life! In July, Evan was promoted to executive director at search firm Russell Reynolds Associates. In his role, he recruits and advises board directors and C-suite leaders across industries, helping organizations improve the way the world is led.

2013-FT

Saurav Chawla

On May 31, Saurav sold his gig technology company, OkayGo, to HR management platform BetterPlace. Five years ago, Saurav left his job as an investment banker in New York City to move to India and start his entrepreneurial journey. While running his food business, Fifth Avenue Café, he saw firsthand the challenges facing blue-collar workers and got inspired to start a tech company to increase gig workers’ hourly earnings. Over the past two years, OkayGo has increased the earnings of 10,000 workers through an Uber-like marketplace.

2013-E&W

Debbie Brin Leon

Debbie started a new role as director, people operations for Figure Technologies in April 2022. As part of the people leadership team, Debbie will build out a learning and development strategy for the remote-first fintech blockchain company, in addition to serving as HR business partner for Figure’s president and various corporate functions.  

2014-E&W

Kirk McNamara

After successfully completing a large business transformation project at Motiva Enterprises, Kirk joined the leadership team as director of base oils. In this new role, Kirk oversees the P&L for the end-to-end business and leads a team of sales, marketing and business/manufacturing operations professionals.

2015-FT

Paul Lee

Paul recently joined Gibson Dunn & Crutcher as an M&A/PE associate. He was previously at Fried Frank, a New York-based law firm. He is still based in Washington, D.C., where he lives with Jahee Koo ’20 MS and their 5-year-old son, Jayden.

2015-CERT

Ulrich Thienel

Northwestern’s Chemistry of Life Processes Institute recently profiled Ulrich, MD, PhD, chief executive officer of ReAlta Life Sciences and member of CLP’s Executive Advisory Board. The profile details his growing up in Germany and his career journey, first to medicine and then into corporate healthcare. It also highlights the impact of his experience in the Kellogg Executive Education program. “Having the training and background of Germany, Columbia University and Kellogg counts,” says Ulrich. “People couldn’t just dismiss me as a doctor. I learned how much a great education can carry you throughout your career.” 

2017-E&W

Giuseppe Infusino

Giuseppe led the successful closing of InvestBev’s third private-equity growth fund, which he and his team are actively deploying into the adult beverage sector. InvestBev, a leader in its industry, acquires barrels full of distilled spirits and invests in growing adult beverage brands and beverage technology. InvestBev now has more than $150 million in assets under management. 

2017-E&W

Ming Wang

Ming’s autobiography, “From Darkness to Sight,” has been adapted into the feature film “Sight.” Led by actor Terry Chen and co-starring Greg Kinnear, the film is slated for a 2022 release. Says Ming, “The movie is based on my life story as a Chinese immigrant who fought to survive during China’s Cultural Revolution and came to America as a poor student with $50, worked hard and stood up against racial discrimination.” The movie follows the story of how Ming invented the amniotic membrane contact lens, which has helped restore sight for millions. 

2018-E&W

Melanie Beatus

Melanie Beatus and Matthew Ettleson ’11, ’15 MD, of Chicago, were married on April 3, 2022.

2018-E&W

April Figueroa

April and her husband, Jerry Stoffl ’19 MBA, welcomed their first child, Charlie Lin-Palacio Stoffl, on April 8. April served as Evening & Weekend KSA president, and Jerry likes to think he served as her campaign manager. 

2018-FT

Laura Kelly

Cornerstone Research has promoted Laura to principal. Laura is a chartered financial analyst who focuses on complex matters related to securities class actions, financial institutions, market manipulation, and valuation. Her securities experience includes analyzing issues related to price impact, loss causation, and damages. 

2019-FT

Mike Burnes

Mike recently moved to Manhattan from Cincinnati. He is looking forward to connecting with fellow Kellogg alums in New York City. 

2020-FT

Jonathon Leist

Jon and Carley Leist recently broke ground on their new home in Charleston, South Carolina.

2021-E&W

Hunter Barnett

Hunter served on Colorado’s inaugural Independent Redistricting Commission last year. For the first time in Colorado history, the once-a-decade process of redrawing the state’s eight congressional and 100 legislative districts was completed by citizens, not elected politicians. The nonpartisan commission’s work and the resulting maps have earned high praise from national redistricting analysts.

2021-E&W

Adam Johnson

Adam was promoted to senior vice president, corporate development and strategy at MP Materials. He moved to Dallas-Fort Worth in May 2022.

2021-FT

Neil Sheth

Neil ’16, ’21 MD, MBA began a new position as a resident physician at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, specializing in ophthalmology. 

EMBA Cohort 28

Jacques Bossonney

Jacques retired from IBM at the end of August 2021 and promptly joined Revenue Storm as a consultant in sales effectiveness and coaching. He is still living in Paris with his wife, Carol, and is now the proud grandfather of Joséphine, daughter of his daughter Madeleine and her husband, Clément.

EMBA Cohort 28

Birgitta Kuehn

Birgitta has spent her retirement actively engaged in municipal volunteerism in historic Plymouth, Massachusetts. Birgitta was recently elected as the first female chair of the Plymouth Planning Board, which is integral in the strategic development and preservation of the 105-square-mile town. Birgitta continues to keep her hand in the development of cardiovascular programs across the country as an independent contractor. (Did she say retired?)

EMBA Cohort 28

Sara Sirotzky

Sara, a managing director with Marsh, was featured in Marsh’s April 2022 Global CEO’s Possibility Newsletter as a result of two deals won in Ireland and Germany by a major manufacturing company based in the U.S. Sara has continued to sell and consult with Marsh for 51 years, transferring from Peru to Chicago in 1974. Sara has received several awards for her work, including the CEO award in 2021. Sara published “Red Rose and Blue Butterfly,” a children’s book, in 2012. Her leadership book will be published in 2023. Every year, Sara hosts a luncheon for business leaders.

EMBA Cohort 32

Tetsuya Sogo

After returning to Japan in 2018, Tetsuya (who was previously CEO of NTN Americas) has been promoting transformation toward value creation for the entire NTN Group as CFO of NTN Corporation. Even in a management environment made difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic and a shortage of semiconductors, Tetsuya has been steadily moving forward to revitalize the NTN Group all over the world.

EMBA Cohort 33

Karl Saunders

Karl is a registered investment adviser representative with Saunix Investment Management LLC, with offices in Ohio and New York. His website address is SaunixInvestmentManagement.com. He continues to teach martial arts and self-defense, weight training and fitness. He is an assistant football coach for Bishop Rosecrans High School.

EMBA Cohort 47

Gautam Roy

Gautam, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Unum, appeared in a Wall Street Journal article in May, speaking on the topic of sustainability. With engagement portals, bots and digital payments, Unum eliminated 4.5 million analog paper transactions, preserving 450 trees annually. The company also reduced its carbon footprint by consolidating data centers, powering on next-gen hyperconverged infrastructure and hybrid cloud strategy to enhance customer service while supporting green initiatives.

EMBA Cohort 49

N. Merritt Becker

Merritt recently joined National Railway Equipment Company as president and CEO. NRE is a global leader in the rail, marine and power industries, with facilities around the world. He and his wife, Jill, are relocating to Mount Vernon, Illinois.

EMBA Cohort 50

E.J. Donaghey

E.J. shares that he has proudly accepted a job as chief experience officer/COO at Black Hills Credit Union in Rapid City, South Dakota.

EMBA Cohort 62

Kristin Noelle Smith

Kristin ’88, ’06 MBA produced “David Adler: Great House Architect,” a four-part PBS documentary that highlights the life, clients and classical architecture of this “society architect.” Adler (1882-1949) designed more than 45 homes, 12 of which are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Adler’s clients included America’s leading entrepreneurs of a bygone era, when the affluent employed live-in service staff of butlers, chauffeurs and more.

EMBA Cohort 62

John Thomason

John is enjoying semiretirement in Wellington, New Zealand. He and his wife are serving on a number of charitable boards while taking advantage of all the hiking and nature New Zealand has to offer. John writes, “If you’re ever in this part of the globe, we’d love to see you!”

EMBA Cohort 73

Steve Greenspon

Steve ’91, ’09 MBA and Steve Oblak ’01 MBA met up recently at the Wayfair Vendor Summit in Boston. The two have been partnering on projects for more than 10 years and enjoy working with fellow Kellogg alumni. According to Greenspon, the collaborative nature, humility and ethical standards of Kellogg graduates make doing business together more productive and enjoyable for all parties.

EMBA Cohort 76

João Lucio Azevedo Filho

After more than eight years as head of the Latin American market for Cognizant, João has embarked on an entrepreneurial role by founding his own startup. Beecrowd is a marketplace that empowers students and tech professionals and connects them to the world’s most innovative corporations through a single and easy-to-use platform that enables IT services and recruitment processes to be delivered. With a user base of 600,000-plus software developers distributed in more than 100 countries, Beecrowd is among the largest communities of tech professionals in the world.

EMBA Cohort 87

Justin Poggioli

In August 2021, Justin and his family moved to eastern Pennsylvania from Chicago. In January they adopted a Doberman pinscher. “I was able to attend the 10-year reunion, and it was a blast to see everyone after 10 years,” he says. “Work has been extremely busy as we’ve doubled revenue in 2021 and are on target for more than doubling revenue for 2022.”

EMBA Cohort 92

Adam Borcz

Based in Annapolis, Maryland, Adam has joined California-based PE firm Riviera Capital Partners as a general partner. Prior to Riviera, Adam worked for a Maryland-based private-equity firm focused on acquiring distressed assets, both on the investment and operating sides. As a self-funded searcher, he then acquired one of the largest mid-Atlantic commercial furniture installation companies.

EMBA Cohort 92

Michelle Tafel

Michelle joined DRG Talent as principal of organizational consulting. In her new role, she will provide talent and leadership consulting to leaders in the nonprofit sector.

EMBA Cohort 98

Lisa Litherland

Lisa is co-founder and CEO of Social Optics, a digital curriculum equipping autistic teens with a set of lenses for viewing social interactions. The lenses improve perspective-taking, problem-solving and communication skills, resulting in better transition outcomes and employability. The goal: to improve quality of life through informed decision-making, meaningful social connections and increased career opportunities.

EMBA Cohort 108

Enna Weng

After graduation, Enna joined Barclays as the U.S. head of equity derivatives LCM business. Four years later, she’s joining Freedom Capital Markets as managing director to run the company’s expansion of the capital market business in the U.S., managing and executing selling group, syndicate and underwriting transactions for IPOs and M&A advisory. She’s also a leading investor at VTR, an aviation tech company focusing on pilot training that was founded by another Kellogg Executive MBA alum.

EMBA Cohort 112

Nageswar Bijivemula

Nageswar is happy to report the success of his startup venture Beetexting, a messaging-as-a-platform product that enables team-centric text messaging for small- and medium-sized businesses. Nageswar founded the company while in the Executive MBA Program at Kellogg.

EMBA Cohort 116

Alpesh Patel

Alpesh is now the vice chair of strategy for Northwestern’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He will help shape the department’s strategic plan to enable people around the world to achieve more through better bone and joint health.

EMBA Cohort KH19

David Dai

David shares that he is nearing 20 years of experience within the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry in the mainland China market. He has particular expertise in supply chain, value stream, and sales and marketing functions and is familiar with a multicultural working environment and organizational structure.

EMBA Cohort KS1

Lee Feliciano

Lee and Doug Klein ’92 MBA are partners at New Use Energy. The mission of the Tempe, Arizona-based startup is to build a better generator, replacing gas- and diesel-powered generators with mobile, rapidly deployable solar-plus-battery solutions.

EMBA Cohort KS4

Petros Matiatos

Petros works as a business and process architect in data and finance/banking business areas. His major areas of competence are risk management, regulations (e.g., data compliance/GDPR), audits and business process/IT architecture, and engineering and standards. And of course, robotics and automation should not be missing from the list. Petros is a passionate badminton player, and in his free time he enjoys cooking amazing vegan plates for his friends and mates. He lives in Zurich.

EMBA Cohort KS12

Paul Sandberg

Paul joined the startup FDS in 2019 as vice president. FDS focuses on providing an innovative rental solution for specialized tools and equipment for foundation construction. This progressive concept allows more contractors to enter this capital-intensive industry, Paul shares. He is rapidly expanding FDS with more inventory and new locations in Toronto and San Francisco, and more to come soon.