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CLASS NOTES
Everett Weinberger
50 West 70th Street
Apt. 3B
New York, N.Y. 10023
everett.weinberger@db.com
Last
issue's plea for more news produced an excellent response. Ken
Stuzin was a particularly good source. He lives in Baltimore
with his wife, Anne, and their two kids, Maddie and Devon. After
B-school at Columbia, Ken spent 11 years at J.P. Morgan, formed his
own money management firm and is now a partner at Brown Investment
Advisory. Ken stays very involved with Columbia - he interviews
applicants and even attends one football game a year. Ken provided
a number of updates, sprinkled through the column.
It's
interesting that many in our class have made their way to the
Golden State (trivia: did you know that California's state motto is
"Eureka?"). Ben Field is living in San Jose with his wife,
Nancy, and their two children, Abraham and Naomi. Ben's a deputy
district attorney there, where he prosecutes murders and sex
crimes. Just to make us all feel like under-achievers, Ben's
managed on the side to recently finish his Ph.D. dissertation in
American legal history at Berkeley.
Tony Cresap studied environmental law at Wisconsin and
is now the attorney to the planning commission and development
department of the city of Fresno, Calif. He tackles many hot
land-use issues amid the explosive growth there. In his spare time,
he's slowly restoring a 1918 Craftsman bungalow in the Tower
District. He also enjoys being 90 minutes away from Yosemite and
Kings Canyon national parks, where he goes hiking with his black
German Shepherd, Ginger. Tony encourages classmates who travel
through the Yosemite area to look him up for a guided tour. Mike
Gilligan is living in L.A. where he manages the Douglas (as in
Kirk and Michael) Family Foundation, which helps fund inner city
land-use projects. Mike's career progression was: Peace Corps to
fundraising at Columbia to Teach for America to Sylvan Learning to
the Douglases. He and his wife just welcomed a baby daughter.
John Kirkland, who got his law degree at UCLA, is a partner
in the L.A. office of Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner,
doing corporate and venture capital work for Internet and tech
companies. Kevin Quinn recently moved to Menlo Park to run
Goldman Sachs's tech group. He and his wife have two boys and a
girl.
Will Cheek has had a busy year, marrying Vanderbilt law
school classmate Kathryn Barnett, moving to a historic home in
Hillsboro Village in Nashville, becoming principal in the law firm
Lassiter, Tidwell & Hildebrand, and recently being named one of
Business Nashville's "40 Under 40" list of prominent young
business people. Will practices business, real estate and
bankruptcy law, and specializes in alcoholic beverage licensing.
Dan Chenok is doing well in Bethesda, Md. with wife, Jill
'87, and daughters, Hannah and Ava. He's head of the OMB's
information policy and technology branch, which handles federal
policy and budget issues around IT, computer security and
e-commerce.
In
foreign news, Steve Stuart and his wife, Katrina, just moved
to Tokyo with Ripplewood Holdings as part of the team managing
their recent investment in Long Term Credit Bank of Japan. When we
last checked in with Steve Trevor, he was living in Hong
Kong with wife, Ronnie. After nearly five years there, they moved
last year to London, where he focuses on principal investing for
Goldman Sachs. Steve and Ronnie have a 9-month-old son, Jackson
Smith, who joins their busy household, which also includes two cats
and two dogs.
Tanmoy Mukherjee lives in New Jersey with his wife and
four kids. He's a doctor at Mt. Sinai where he specializes in
infertility and reproductive surgery. Tanmoy let us know that
Kornylo Chorny is doing well as a radiologist at Harvard,
and that Michael Caldwell continues as health commissioner
of Dutchess County, N.Y., where he lives with his wife and two
children.
You
might want to know how we did with "The List," the 10 classmates
selected randomly in each column in order to get news on those who
are less likely to come forward. We had a 10 percent hit rate from
last issue, not bad in direct mail circles. Our sole respondent was
Steve Cohen, who wrote in to let us know that he's spent the
last 14 years in and out of federal prison on what he wants
everyone to know are completely bogus charges related to the use of
the postal system (just to be clear - Steve is joking). Other than
that, he returned to Columbia in 1988 to attend film school and
received an MFA from the School of the Arts. He worked in L.A. as a
studio executive before returning to screenwriting and directing.
He currently lives in N.Y., where he screenwrites, though his real
joy is a documentary he's writing and directing on Metropolis,
Ill., the town where he's from. He's also enjoying his work as an
adjunct assistant professor of screenwriting at Columbia's Film
Division.
Here
is the next installment of The List (why do I feel like Regis?):
Bobby Strack, Lance Bonneau, Robert De Vivo, Naveed Khan, Howard
Nelson, Marshall Wright, Joel Berg, Edward Daw, Seilai Khoo and
Melissa McRaney. Anyone can feel free to update me on these
people (as well as previous List members).
Robert V. Wolf
206 West 99th Street
Apt. 3A
New York, N.Y. 10025
rvwolf@compuserve.com
Cathy Webster mentioned Lee Ilan in the summer
column, which prompted Lee herself to drop me a line "to set the
record straight." Lee writes: "I do indeed love my job. I've been a
senior environmental planner for the N.Y.C. Mayor's Office of
Environmental Coordination for a year and a half, and I haven't had
a day on which I wished I was doing anything else. I work on an
interesting variety of environmental review and brownfields
projects and have the pleasure of collaborating with a small group
of great people, including Daniel Avery '90 (who I am "outing" here
in the Webster tradition).
"And
in the our-identity-is-more-than-our-job mode, I'm also singing in
a symphonic chorus (we're looking for more members), directing the
New York Center for Kripalu Yoga & Health, improving my tango
technique, and planning my next bicycle vacation to the Finger
Lakes upstate. Last October, I took the bike out to the West Coast
and planned and rode a 350-mile loop around San Francisco, visiting
my brother and friends such as Michael Marubio and his wife,
Kristine, who live in the cutest house in Oakland. It was a great
trip, and I'm happy to share my route with anyone
interested!"
George Gianfrancisco
c/o Columbia College Today
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 917
New York, N.Y. 10115
cct@columbia.edu
There is something about this time of year that makes me feel
different. I feel it in my fingertips. When the wind bites you just
enough to let you know that far worse is right around the corner,
so smoke 'em if ya got 'em. The colors of the trees, the
anticipation of classes, the smell of the air, football. It must
have something to do with life and death, regeneration, carrying
on, getting by.
Which brings me to the happy news of Dr. Cornelia Gallo,
who proudly announces the birth of her daughter, Madeline. She and
her husband, Peter, now have a full house up in Westport,
Conn.
Also, Dr. Kari Fraser married Frank McGill last year and
they are at the one-year mark with happy tidings to everyone from
Boulder, Colo.
Elizabeth King recently wed Philip Humphrey. Liz is
still working at AP Broadcast Technology in Wilmington, N.C., on
their new ENPS software. Incidentally, she and Philip have known
each other since they were 4 years old.
I
was pleasantly surprised recently by unsolicited telephone calls
from two of my former Lion teammates: Mike Lavelle (the
Cleveland Comet) and Paul "Flipper" San Filippo. The
Comet has been living blissfully in Arizona with his wife, Maura,
and a smashingly beautiful daughter named Emma who is irrefutable
proof of the strength of her mother's gene pool. The clan is moving
back to their Ohio homeland, settling in Columbus due to The
Comet's current work assignment as a systems analyst for Anderson.
Flipper called in from Naples, Fla., where he is building a house
and has hung out his own shingle. His growing law firm seems to be
gobbling up as much business as is humanly possible and he and his
wife, Julie, are looking forward to starting a family ASAP. Of
special interest to ex-Lion gridders, Flip told me that our old
d-back coach, Gene Rochette, coaches HS football in Naples and jogs
past his house every morning reminding him that he's too short and
slow to play man coverage.
Speaking of guys who are too short and slow to play football, I
think we should all remember to support the Lions this upcoming
season, which could finally be that one golden slice that we've all
been waiting for.
Amy Perkel
212 Concord Drive
Menlo Park, Calif. 94025
amyperkel@yahoo.com
Congratulations to Kate Movius and husband, Hugh
O'Donovan, on the birth of their first child, a boy born in July.
Kate and Hugh moved to Los Angeles five years ago to pursue the
acting "thang." Of late, Kate has been doing voiceover spots for
Rugrats, the hugely popular Nickelodeon animation program
for children starring Tommy Pickles and his pals. Kate also is
involved with the Rugrats in Paris movie, to be released in
November, and accompanying CD. On the CD, Kate is playing the evil
female character, Cocoa LaBouche, which is being played by Susan
Sarandon in the movie version. Kate became involved in voiceovers
while working at the Klasky Csupo animation studio as production
administrator for the Rugrats' movie sequel. This is the
same studio behind Duck Man and the original
Simpsons. In the works may be more voiceovers for a number
of web-based network shows. Kate informs us that there are a number
of Internet network stations springing up such as AtomFilms and MediaTrip.com that produce
one-and-a-half minute animations, similar to the South Park genre.
Kate and Hugh swim in the same circles professionally; he is an
audio engineer and musician who currently is engineering pieces for
the Web.
Kate
also keeps up with Joanne Ooi after reconnecting about two
years ago. Joanne and her family, husband Guss Liem '88 and son
Sam, flew in from Hong Kong for Kate's wedding. Joanne is CEO &
Co-Founder of Style Trek (styletrek.com), "a hyper-edited
shopping experience which concentrates on the best of the most
interesting design resources from all over the world." Joanne has
amassed an extensive amount of experience in the garment business
prior to the launching of her current venture. Instead of pursuing
a law career following graduation from the University of
Pennsylvania Law School, she landed a plum fashion industry job -
sales & marketing director, Asia, for Stephane Kélian, the
renowned French shoe designer, but only after spending much time in
the trenches of the Asian garment district.
After developing an extensive network of contacts with leading
high-end Asian retailers, Joanne launched her own showroom, East
From Seventh, securing exclusive distribution rights in Asia for,
among many other edgy prestige brands, Daryl K, the
CFDA-award-winning designer. As an extension of her wholesale
distribution business, Joanne opened and operates two exclusive
retail boutiques in Hong Kong. If that weren't enough, she recently
acquired a U.S. showroom, Trek Lightly, in New York. StyleTrek, as
noted on the website, "integrates all the strands of Joanne's
passion, knowledge and experience under one roof, permitting her to
impose a hip sensibility on her extensive array of sourcing
contacts from around the globe." We thank Desi del Valle for
putting us in touch with Kate, and indirectly Joanne. The former
two were recently reunited by telephone. Kate discovered Desi's
whereabouts over the Internet, and contacted her agent, Mitchell
Talent in San Francisco.
From
the East coast, Patricia (Ryan) Long and her husband, Shep
'88, now live in Stamford, Conn., where Patty works. She started
with SSB Citi Asset Management Group, the asset management arm of
Citigroup. As technology strategist, she is charged with planning
the systems infrastructure for this global organization. On the
personal front, Patty and Shep welcomed Robert Thomas into their
lives on August 26, 1999. The toddler, Patty notes, loves to
"commando" crawl around the house. Shep is working for Arthur
Andersen Consulting in the health and welfare consulting
practices.
The
baby news continues. Allison and Todd Thomason welcomed
their first child to St. Louis on April 10. When asked for details
on the baby, Todd assured us, "It's a human." Caroline Elizabeth
came in at seven pounds and twenty inches. They're unsure of hair
color as of yet - Todd reports that she's "bald like me right now."
Todd continues as an investment banker for AG Edwards, where he is
director of the healthcare group. Alison is taking the summer and
fall off from academia, with plans to not only tend to Caroline,
but also write a book on ancient Near Eastern ivories. Keep the
news coming, folks. Best regards.
Dan Max
Shaw Pittman
1676 International Drive
McLean, Va. 22101
daniel.max@
shawpittman.com
Gemma Tarlach wrote in with the following: "After
spending more than six years in the foreign service, including two
in Moscow, I ditched government service (too much bureaucracy) and
returned to my erstwhile vocation, music journalism. I did it
mostly for the graft: the free CDs, concert tickets, chances to
hang backstage with the likes of Metallica (or at least their
roadies!), etc. I'm currently a pop music and pop culture reporter
at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which means I also get to
cover fun stuff like professional wrestling, toys, the Internet,
etc. It's a great job and even after two years here, I find I
rarely if ever miss New York (except when I want a good slice of
pizza) - something I never thought I'd say! I do get back to the
city twice a year or so covering things like toy fair and the CMJ
New Music Conference, and one of my first stops is always Ollie's.
Although I spent four years on the archery team at Columbia, I've
moved on to mastering... northern shao lin kung fu for quite awhile
and find it's the perfect sport to know when one's job description
includes spending time in the mosh pit at ozzfest every year. I
just got back from vacation in Tunisia, which is one of the few
Middle East/Maghreb countries I didn't get to see while working for
the government." She also tried to sell me her condo in Falls
Church, Va., but I'm not buying.
Please submit stuff for those of us who missed the recent
10-year reunion.
I am
embarrassingly low on material.
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