1983
About a year ago, I traveled to Atlanta to witness NickRoberts' wedding and, among other things, was able to catch up with my old roommate Greg Curhan Greg was making some noise about possibly moving on from Merrill Lynch and doing something different. I listened politely, thinking, "Yeah, rightisn't everybody?" But, doggone it, Greg made good on his promise—he's now with World Res.com, a business services company that distributes information and reservations booking capability for hotels, inns, bed and break-fasts, etc. to leisure travelers via a proprietary global network of Web site and call center partners. My influence with this column's readers is understandably non-existent, but you have to trust me on this one: WorldRes.com's site is way past cool, there appear to be some great deals offered, and in my book it's OK to serve up a little free publicity for '83's doing neat things. (Yes, Bill Robbins still has his company, Convergent Ventures.) Either that, or we could talk about efficient market theory and QUALCOMM's stock price or debate whether "Magnolia" is the most bizarre movie ever made. Am I right, or am I right?
We appear to have plenty of animal lovers in our class. Monique Abner, M.D., who's a certified plastic surgeon in Charlotte, N.C., was impressed by the update on Chaz Blackmore, who dropkicked the real world and went to work for an animal sanctuary. In fact, there's a strong possibility that Monique visited that same sanctuary several years ago. Monique writes (with a little editing from yours truly), "The place was amazing. They had hundreds of dogs and cats and 'things'. When I saw all of the varied dogs, I felt as though I was in a Dr. Seuss book."
Lo and behold, Jim Maguire has checked in. Jim and wife Teresa reside in New Jersey with their five (not a typo) sons—ages 8, 7, 5, 3 and 1. Jim commutes to Wall Street by boat and is a managing director with Henderson Brother, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange specialist firm. He does a lot of broadcast interviews on TV for CNN and CNBC. In his note to me Jim didn't give any hints about looking West and going to work at an animal sanctuary. He may be distracted doing some financial projections regarding college tuition bills that will be headed his way starting in about 10 years. I'll keep you posted.
Mark Vanzant last fall was named manufacturing division manager for Milacron's plastics technologies group. Mark's been with Milacron for 14 years. I'm helpless to explain what Mark's promotion means, other than to report that there's absolutely nothing involving an animal sanctuary and, to quote from the press release: "[He] will be responsible for developing the Mount Orab plant into a stand-alone manufacturing operation within the U.S. plastics machinery business unit."
And here's a more elaborate (liberally edited) update on Massachusetts-domiciled Neil Donnenfeld who probably sleeps much better at night now that the Yankees have re-signed Derek Jeter. In between watching re-runs of New York Islanders hockey games from the early 'Bos, Neil spends a few hours each day at a pharmaceutical company called Advanced Vision Research. He helps market a product called Thera Tears helps people with a chronic condition called "dry eye." Neil's married to Liz and has two daughters—Allie (6) and Julie (3). No word on Neil's thoughts about animal sanctuaries. All for now. Jenny's up next. Write us more.
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