1983
Staring into the abyss of yet another health club membership, I decided it was high time to update my gymnasium wardrobe with a few Big Green items. So I called the Dartmouth Co-op (still too frightened to actually go online and buy something, but am making progress in therapy) and was desultorily informed that the Co-op was out of stock, indefinitely, in all the T-shirts and sweatshirts I wanted. Who bought all this stuff ahead of me, thereby postponing my workout plans? I want to send a thank-you note.
Bill Robbins has been yelping for months about the lack of "pub" given to his company (Convergent Ventures), which, according to its chairman, chief executive officer and sole proprietor (i.e., Bill), remains a sexy start-up endeavor, even as another year passes into the books. Our serial entrepreneur, in a top secret offthe-record interview, does concede that he's started "a substantial number" of companies, but invokes the Fifth when asked to talk about em in detail, quickly adding that "several, welldefinitely one—is projected to break even sometime before 2025. Potentially. Various red herring prospectuses (accessible via www. convergentventures.com, just after Bills photograph page) for Bill's sure things are available for your viewing pleasure.
The Vancouver Grizzlies (of NBA fame) need some help both on and off the court. Mike Golub not long ago was appointed SVP of business operations for the team. Mike's got a few marketing-related challenges ahead of him, but appears superbly equipped for them, having worked previously at Trakus Inc. (a sports technology firm), Nike and the NBA. I liked one of Mike's quotes: "I understand how the league (the NBA) works at a macro level." That's good, because the NBA is becoming increasingly hard to understand at a micro level. Here in Denver our vaunted Nuggets (average player salary: several million dollars; average wins per year: 15) boycotted a practice earlier this winter because they were too tired.
Jenny and I have been awash in press clippings about classmates doing fantastic things in a variety of areas: technology, finance, sports, medicine, media, dot.com this-and-that, and even the priesthood (hello, Jim Nadeau!). 'You read all of these succulent stories and you wonder: Doesn't anybody have a bad day every now and then? And, why is it so hard to understand what people actually do during daylight hours? At any rate, here are a few tidbits: Robert Schreib is a senior \product manager with Symbol Technolo- gies, a company that provides wireless and Internet-based mobile data transaction services. I studied the story in Pocket PC magazine for several hours, nearly coming to tears several times for lack of any clue about what I was reading (eerily similar to any science or economics course I took as an undergrad). The best I can do is tell you that Robert's helped the company create a variety of information-based solutions to help customers manage their businesses better.
Jeff Soinski recently joined the board of Big Star Entertainment. Jeff is CEO of Mad Dogs and Englishmen, an advertising agency. William Chapman, M.D., successfully completed another first in robotic surgery—the worlds first removal of an adrenal gland via the da Vinci robotic surgical system. Mac Gardner has once again landed at Merrill Lynch (perhaps the third times the charm), and now can be tracked down in Princeton, New jersey. Mark Howard Johnson believes the Nasdaq can fall another 50 percent and that everyone should buy REITs immediately. REITs are for people who think bonds are boring but don't like it when stocks lose 40 percent in three trading days. Gotta hop. Write us more.
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