1978

One would have to be a hermit to have missed the news regarding Jeff Immelf. Congratulations Jeff! While some might be intimidated by Jeff's business success, it was the comment about his prowess as class secretary (I think it was in Newsweek) that gave me pause.

Meanwhile, I have received a lot of news this year-end. Thank you one and all and please keep up the good work. Dave Graham: "Unlike some 44-year corporate wunderkinds, I am content to be managing partner in a three-person consulting firm (The Graham Sjostrand Group) that works in medical technology marketing research and new product planning. With my wife, Jane, we are raising two boys, Connor (11) and CJ (9), with all the requisite sports and other activities. I particularly enjoy coaching CJs soccer team and plan on making this my second career. "Having been in Seattle for the past 13-plus years strains the ties to the Hanover Plain. However, this summer, I was pleased to have a chance to bring my family back to my hometown (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) and then took the opportunity to hook up with longtime friends and AD frat brothers Pete Judson and Chris Cummings. Upon returning to Seattle, we then hosted Lisa Ostafin, her husband, Hossein, and son Peter as they made their very first trip out to the Northwest."

Scott Marber: "I haven't sent news in for a decade or two, not that much has happened, but the ease of e-mail has broken my inertia. After five years in Seattle, following 40 in the Northeast, the fact that you don't have to shovel rain has made this place a keeper for me and my family. My wife, Molly, and our four children (two boys, twin girls, ages 5-8) were recently paid a visit by my ex-roomate Ernie Marmer, his wife, Kate, and new daughter Abigail. We hadn't seen each other in about 20 years. Ernie lives in Hoboken, Newjersey, and is putting out a financial newsletter covering the biotech field. I've just started a new company called Howtoonz Network that brings boring Web sites to life by delivering their messages through entertaining animated virtual hosts. This is my fourth start-up. I guess I am the anti-Immelt. Jeff might have $450 billion more in market cap at GE than me and 18 more years tenure with his current company, but my company can make his company more fun."

Bill Grant: "Your e-mail catches me at my office in South Africa working on a policy paper to stimulate the supply of finance to small and medium enterprises for the South African government. I am facilitating a workshop tomorrow of the top development finance implementers here to try to put some rational implementation behind a well thought out but impractical policy framework.

"I have been living in Johannesburg now for 15 months running an economic development consulting firm—Ebony Consulting International. The firm is a South African company started six years ago as a joint venture between a leading U.S. consulting firm and black South African investors. We are rapidly becoming one of the most highly regarded African consulting firms focusing on addressing issues of small business development, black economic empowerment, de- velopment finance and local government transformation. Our latest initiative is on the implications of HIV/AIDS for private sector development. With infection rates of over 20 percent of the population, South Africa expects to lose 25 percent of its citizens be- tween the ages of 15 and 30 over the next 10 years!

"My wife, Deborah, and daughter Emily are well settled here now. Our plans are to be here for the next four to five years. Look forward to hearing from anyone wishing to visit beautiful South Africa."

14960 Altata Drive, PacificPalisades, CA 90272; (310) 459-8871 (phone); (310)459-8170 (fax); mmfh@mindspring.com