One Starfish at a Time

As a first-generation college student, Carl Peoples (MBA ’94) didn’t have a blueprint for building a career through higher ed. Rather, Peoples says he was “feeling my way along.” Toting an economics degree from William & Mary and a handful of years in retail banking, he found his way to Darden in search of something new. Now he’s sporting an 18year career in investment management in Atlanta, Georgia, at Goldman Sachs, “the best firm to do private wealth management in the world.”

His hunger for challenge made Darden his business school of choice, with its reputation as a rigorous program that facilitated “testing yourself against some of the brightest people you’ll ever meet.” After Darden, corporate and investment banking took Peoples to Atlanta. He resisted suggestions to consider private wealth management. As a “hardcore finance guy,” it didn’t seem serious enough, but he finally agreed to give it a shot and ended up loving it.

Peoples says finding balance is one of the biggest challenges of his career. “Wall Street will take everything you have and still demand more,” he said. “If you allow yourself to work as much as you possibly can for too long, you will have bad outcomes emotionally, physically and professionally.”

Nowadays, Peoples finds satisfaction and pride in moments like his kids heading to college or getting involved philanthropically to help disenfranchised students and entrepreneurs access opportunities, and also

CARL PEOPLES (MBA ’94)

in milestones like the ability to retire and provide for his mother’s care.

Peoples connects many of the essential pillars of his life, career and relationships back to Darden and the doors his experience opened. “You would be hard pressed to ever talk to someone who got more out of Darden than I did, and still do,” he said. “As a Black kid from a single parent home, whose mom raised four of us on a teacher’s aid salary, I didn’t know these opportunities existed.”

Peoples is most excited lately about helping others get similar opportunities. “All the board work I do is focused around helping Black and brown kids and white kids who come from disadvantaged backgrounds get to and through college.” He is also taking an interest in helping entrepreneurs historically excluded from systems of funding.

He cites the parable of the starfish to describe how he feels about these endeavors: A skeptic questions a child who is throwing beached starfish back into the ocean one at a time, but there are thousands more languishing in the heat. The skeptic suggests that the child’s efforts won’t make a difference to the starfish population. The child throws one starfish back in the ocean and replies, “It made a difference to that one.”

“That story is how I feel about the scholarship work we do. We can’t reach everybody, but the people you can reach, it will absolutely change their world.”

— Molly Mitchell

1995

Nene Spivy; Gina Merritt gmerritt@nreuv.com nspivy@aol.com

Let’s stay in touch with classmates yearround — we’re calling on all D’95 grads to join the Darden Class of 1995 Facebook Group! In the meantime, here is the latest and greatest news, starting with Conan Owen, who shared that due to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic on the travel and spa industries, he is closing his hotel based small business. He will continue to work with his wife to grow her medical spa business in downtown Charlottesville, which has been booming. Ever entrepreneurial, Conan said, “I will also be acquiring a commercial printing and graphics marketing company in Charlottesville that is ripe for a turn around.”

Jason Kurtz and his wife Lorra have recently become empty nesters as their twins have headed off to college in Indiana and Oregon. It’s a big adjustment, but they are filling their time with lots of fun travel including Austin, Texas, France and Greece. Jason recently started a podcast called What’s Next (“When Every Hour is Happy Hour”) — check it out on Spotify! He also shared that “I continue to enjoy my never-ending sabbatical of over 2.5 years — one day I’ll figure out what’s next for me!”

Mitch and Emily Wander shared: “Once again, we will try to make sense of the joyous, family chaos that we call our family. Some friends think that there is a method to our madness, but this double-Darden family more often resembles a sitcom. The high point for this year: our daughter Julia’s Little League team won the Washington, D.C., championship and competed in Bristol, Connecticut, for the Little League World Series (LLWS) Mid-Atlantic Region Tournament. You may have seen Julia and her brother/coach, Ben, on ESPN. They played hard, had fun, and were eliminated by Pennsylvania, a great team that went far in the LLWS. We felt very grateful to have Julia and Ben competing together. Beyond that, we’re still living, working, and playing in Washington, D.C.” Mitch Wander also caught up with study group mate Jeff Sung in Massachusetts this year.

Mike Hilado sends his greetings: “Just got back from a wonderful three-month break in the Bay Area. Now I know what they meant by revenge travel!” He hopes to visit the Darden campus next year.

Art and Nene Spivy celebrated their 30th anniversary this summer with their own revenge travel trip to the Amalfi coast of Italy, immensely enjoying the food, wine, hiking and boating. Nene continues to lead the Northern Virginia Science Center Foundation, which operates the Children’s Science Center Lab in Fairfax and is building the new Northern Virginia Science Center in Dulles. The pandemic had a nearly existential impact on the museum industry, though thanks to generous donors and government relief-funding the science center remains on solid footing. Nene was recently appointed to the board of directors for the Association of Science and Technology Centers and enjoys working with industry executives from all over the globe. Art continues his entrepreneurial ventures in healthcare devices and data analytics. Art’s pandemic highlights were sailing the Hudson River and the Chesapeake Bay with his business partner. Art and Nene recently enjoyed a Darden happy hour at the Caboose in Vienna, Virginia, in August, after a long pandemic hiatus, seeing Van Wishard, Jennifer McDowell, Bill Tolpegin and Pamela Silberman. The only fail for the evening was forgetting to take photos — a great reason to plan another one soon!

1996

Frank Martien frank@windward-strategy.com

Lynn Atkinson is a chief operating officer at Mainsail Partners, a growth equity firm based in San Francisco, California, and Austin, Texas. She lives in San Francisco with her two teenage daughters and spends her free time at their cottage in the wine country and skiing at Lake Tahoe. She sees Ligia Zamora and talks with John Fruehwirth from time to time.

Román Azanza is a competitive Hobie 16 sailor and also has a 40-foot Fontaine Pajot catamaran — the best way to explore the 7,100 islands of the Philippines. He has his own sole proprietorship consultancy two years in the making!

Anthony Bailey is still a dean and vice president at USC and volunteer trainer of scientific divers at USC’s Wrigley Marine Science center on Catalina Island, California. His wife, Jen Beindorf, has been promoted to senior vice president at Spiro, a brand experience agency.

Betty and Ben Chen moved back to Boca Raton, Florida. He’s still at insurance broker going on 10 years, working with travel clients.

John Chrosniak has just settled back in Maryland and has been living in Chevy Chase since 1 September.

Andrea DiNunzio just wrapped up an amazing summer and spent the month of July in the South of France, and June and August in East Hampton, Connecticut. Lori Manise, Chris Gilbert and Andrea were able to catch up for dinner for the first time in years this past summer in New York City.

Chitra Ebenezer is working at Velcro Companies and living in Boston, Massachusetts. She recently met up with Anna Maria Anthony at their home in Hingham, Mas- sachusetts. Their husbands went golfing, and Anna Maria and she went for a short hike and spent the day together catching up.

Larry Ehrhardt’s second born, Allen, is joining his sister Ruthie at Northeastern where he is a freshman studying computer science and she is a senior studying political science and economics with a design minor. Rebecca is into her second year as director of development at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Larry’s company, Ballast Lane Applications, is continuing to grow — it is now 130 designers and engineers strong — and works with all kinds of fast-growing small and mid-sized businesses including a few run by fellow Dardenites! Larry is also enjoying sailing and has recommenced team racing, having travelled to Stockholm, Sweden; and Newport, Rhode Island, for a couple of fun events.

Erik Frederick, his wife Elisa, together with Christine Fruehwirth and John, celebrated their respective 25th anniversaries in Croatia. They visited Zagreb, Plitvice National Park, Split, Dubrovnik in Croatia, several islands and Montenegro as well. Amazing trip with lifelong Darden friends!

Scott Garner and his partner, Kay, have turned their five-acre property outside Chicago, Illinois, (Barrington Hills) into a hobby farm with the addition of two Scottish Highlander calves along with seven chickens and one duck. In six to nine months, the calves, Macklin and Millie, will have hair that will nearly cover their entire faces along with meaningful horns. They have been bred to be “mini,” so they will be smaller than normal Scottish Highlanders and a little easier to manage in the Chicago suburbs. When Millie is two years old, she will be able to calf, so it’s possible some offspring are in the future. That said, even with the most generous assumptions in Scott’s discounted cash flow model, this little operation has a payback period that extends beyond Scott and Kay’s lives. That is why it’s officially called a hobby and not a business.

Kent Goeking has been living and working in Southeast Asia now for over 23 years, half in Singapore and now long-term in Bangkok, Thailand. He transitioned from management consulting, finishing as the managing partner for Accenture in Thailand, and transitioned into the biotech then bioeconomy sectors. At present, he is managing director of a startup called Thai Carbon (visit thaicarbon.bio), which will manufacture biochar at commercial scale. Biochar is a carbon removal technology where biomass is converted into pure carbon, which can be used for a variety of agricultural and technological applications. It also generates carbon removal credits. He is also engaged in bioeconomy consulting in conjunction with Lee Enterprises (lee-enterprises.com) as their lead in Asia.

After almost a decade in New York City and Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Greg Hallford, his wife Tate, and their son, age 8, moved to Ponte Vedra Beach outside Jacksonville, Florida. Their home is in Marsh Landing — a great waterfront neighborhood less than a mile from the beach with golf courses. Professionally, Greg is leading Calibrant Energy’s North American business development efforts. Calibrant is a JV between Macquarie’s Green Investment Group and Siemens focused on delivering financed solar, battery storage, microgrid, and EV charging infrastructure. Tate has a very successful luxury travel advisor business serving Manhattan and their son is playing “travel” lacrosse and football. They got season tickets to the Jaguars as Greg is building solar for their new practice facility.

KC Hildreth lives in Park City, Utah, works as an Executive Coach, and has written a few books and travels with his wife Neha.

Caribou Honig and his wife, Laura, took advantage of their new status as empty nesters to permanently relocate to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where hiking through the high desert and mountains is abundant. Caribou is active as a partner at the venture capital firm SemperVirens, while also helping to launch and grow industry tech conferences such as Blueprint (Real Estate Tech), Manifest (Logistics Tech), and Cumulus (Food/Ag Tech).

Joe Hosler’s company, Auour Investments, continues to grow, and Robert Kuftinec has not gotten to the point of kicking him out. Meggie and Joe just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. Their daughter, Molly, has been living in Dallas, Texas, working for Publicis Sapient. Their son, Pete, is a senior at URI and may move to New York City once he graduates. As a signal to both, they sold their house earlier this year and moved into a small apartment. Thankfully, life has been filled with happiness and health, and just a little Mike Bucci to keep it interesting.

Yuichi Kamoto’s family is well; his wife is taking flower arrangement lessons and their kids are still growing and taking karate lessons. He is working for Shimane Prefecture (State), Japan, where he grew up, and is a member of Shimane Prefectural Assembly. He also likes golfing once in a while to let off some steam without taking lessons!

Alysia Massop has officially relocated to Tampa, Florida, and would love to connect with classmates there. She finds that the hotel business is still exciting and is in the market for an EV or hybrid.

Bob More has enjoyed life with Michelle and their dog Rumple. His two kids are at Boston College and University of New Haven. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and spends time in San Francisco and San Diego, California. He’s been a Partner at Alta Partners for a while working with biotech start-ups, which Bob has found particularly relevant throughout the pandemic. Bob keeps in touch with Cynthia Glass, Val McMurray, Joe Hosler and Steve Shivers Marci (Mueller) Mouritzen and Luanne Pavco caught up with Mike Bucci who visited them at Lake Anna, Virginia, in August for a great hang out and visit.

Phil Murray has “retired” from the firm where he had been working since he and Julie Murray graduated, and now teaches algebra and financial literacy to high schoolers in the Santa Fe Public Schools. Their oldest son, Joseph, graduated from Northwestern this year and now works for Epic Systems outside Madison, Wisconsin. Their daughter, Susannah, is a junior at Tufts University, and their youngest, Fritz, is a high school sophomore.

Bill Nosal is working among offices in New York City; Arlington, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and his home office.

After 11 years of living in Australia and India, Arpan Sheth’s family (Nikita, Shailen, age 20; Kalin, age 17; and Lara, age 14) moved backed to the Washington, D.C., metro in the summer of 2020 (yes, in the middle of the pandemic). Their family has settled nicely back in the United States with the eldest in college and the younger two in high school in suburban Virginia. Arpan has continued with Bain where he has spent the last nearly 20 years focusing on growth tech companies and investors.

Leigh and Kurt Twiford have been in Camp Hill (near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) since 1997, and they purchased a smart building technology company out of bankruptcy in 2005. Leigh and he worked together in the business until 2017, when she decided to “diversify” and purchase a non-medical homecare business. He is her CFO, and he knows her presence is missed more in his business than his contribution to her business. For his business, Conexus, they’ve worked hard for 15 years to build a solid reputation for quality and innovation, and he’s now actively looking for acquisitions to leverage what they’ve built, along with some geographic organic growth. Many classmates may remember Madeleine, who was often on his shoulders at happy hour … she’s now 28 and lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Their son, age 25, lives in Columbia, South Carolina, which gives them excuses to spend time between Pennsylvania and a vacation property on Kiawah Island, South Carolina. They’re not ready to move to Kiawah more permanently yet, but sometime in the future.

This summer, Susan Walser met up with Sue Lipetz Brown and her family in Maine for lunch and some corn hole horsing around with the kids. For work, Sue Lipetz Brown has been at Siemens a long time, running the Americas Compensation team in human resources, and as of October she took on global compensation strategy responsibilities. Sue Lipetz Brown has also stepped into an interim USA chief HR officer role for the short term.

As chief commercial officer of AlloVir (ALVR, Waltham, Massachusetts), Jeroen van Beek is building his global biotechnology company to develop cell therapies for the treatment and prevention of viral diseases in immunocompromised patients. Valerie and he still live in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and also spend time each summer and fall at their house on Block Island, Rhode Island. Their daughter Emma graduated from UVA in 2020 and also works in New York City for an executive compensation consultancy. Their son Niels graduated from the Engineering School at UVA in May 2022. To celebrate, Jeroen and Niels went to Monaco to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Niels now works for Accenture in New York City.

Tom Warren is in Annapolis, Maryland, more frequently these days, given Tina and he purchased a condominium on Back Creek as a getaway for them as well as for their sons. Their younger son, Garrett, just matriculated at Stevenson University in Owings Mills, and their older son, Evan, is a second class midshipman at the Naval Academy. Tina and Tom have joined the ranks of the empty nesters! Professionally, Tom is in his second year leading the go-to-market functions for a small SaaS provider called Lineup. He says, “It’s been fun joining an entrepreneurial venture after two decades with an established global company.”

Rebecca Wilson, together with her New York City-based 20/20 Foresight Executive Search team, Suzanne Mendelsohn, Shelley Raab, and Jonathan Berman (MBA, ’97) is now an empty nester and keeping the Darden spirit alive by hiring one of our fellow Darden alumni, Jonathan.

As an update on our scholarship drive from our reunion: our class came together to establish the Class of 1996 Scholarship to support inclusive excellence at the School. We collectively committed $500 thousand over the next five years to support a perpetual one-third tuition scholarship awarded to women, under-represented minorities, and international students. We aim to grow our impact over time and look forward to meeting our scholars along the way.

1997

Karen Castellon; Mark Bridgers karencastellon908@gmail.com mbridgers@continuumcapital.net

“No experience is ever wasted. Attitude is everything. Everyone should be squatting for health and vitality.” We begin with the wisdom of our classmate, Tracey Lake, who turned 61 years old this year and owns 8-10 American records in powerlifting. Tracey took second place in world powerlifting as “there was an equally strong woman and we broke each other’s records every lift, with her finishing on top.” Incredible. As a power lifter, Tracey competes in the 148-pound class; her squat is 181.9 pounds; her benchpress is 126.8 pounds; and her deadlift is 264.6 pounds. Tracey “doubled down during COVID-19 as a way of coping, but it took a lot of time and energy. Going to scale back. I feel good about maintaining a three-year commitment and pushing through cycles of fatigue and limited gains.” We applaud Tracey’s achievements and leave you with this clarification: “Squatting is just about getting your butt lower than your knees with dumbbells, doesn’t have to be heavy, but so beneficial.” You read it here, Classmates of ’97. Speaking of achievements, Tanja Aalto’s photo on the Darden Class of ’97 Facebook page had a sign that read: “Canadian Himalayan Expeditions. Tanja Aalto’s Excellent Nepal Adventure. Island Peak climbing 6,160 meters (20,210 feet) & Mera Peak Climbing 6,476 meters (21,247 feet) via Three Passes. April–May 2022.” This explains why Tanja’s note read: “Will sadly always miss reunions as the timing syncs with peak climbing season in the Himalayas.” Indeed, it does. And yet, we are flexible and open to an “off peak” reunion with you, Tanja, to hear more about your adventures and what we can apply in our lives without actually being so high up. Tanja’s plan for her next climb is “Annapurna in 2023.” Annapurna, for the curious, is the Hindu goddess of food and nourishment and is also the 10th highest mountain in the world at 8,091 meters (26,545 feet), located in north-central Nepal. Henley Green Sims lives in Austin, Texas, and had planned a trip to Charlottesville with her daughter, who is a high school senior. Several classmates offered, via the Darden Class of ’97 Facebook page, recommendations for both accommodations and food including David Tayman (whose son is in the UVA band), Sarah Barnard

Helmicki, Brad Blonkvist and Louis Gump. David encouraged engaging with the UVA Admission Liaison Program, which is a service offered to UVA alumni (like all of us, classmates) as an opportunity for a lower stress dialog regarding your child’s application (although not necessarily an admissions bump).

Lauren Taylor has turned her advocacy to the elimination of invasive plants. She set up a “nationwide petition to stop the retail sale of officially listed invasive plants that are harming our parks, our farms and our health. Would you please sign my petition? I would greatly appreciate your support! And for the love of parks, please share widely.” The petition is hosted on Change.org and can be found at: chng.it/K4n2cKdPpb. It had almost 55 thousand signatories as of October 2022. This has garnered positive press interest. We applaud you, Lauren.

Mark Reese is the newest classmate to join the Darden Class of ’97 Facebook page, and he was welcomed by a few classmates, including Jim Hermens with “Section D, baby!!”

Simon Constable (@RealConstable) continues his writing career and has been on the interview circuit to discuss his skepticism about cryptocurrency, including on 77WABC with Frank Morano on 2 February 2022. You may recall Simon’s book The WSJ Guide to the 50 Economic Indicators That Really Matter.

Besides being a member of a daily Wordle group with Julie Steckel, Rob Coury and Karen Castellon, perhaps more importantly, Jeff Lax completed the Berlin Marathon in September 2022. This achievement is part of a “two-event challenge to help people living with multiple sclerosis and to accelerate research to find a cure for this nasty disease.”

Jeff ran with a team from the MS Society of the U.K. He continues: “I was part of a 60-strong team that ran the streets of Berlin on the same course and same day that Eliud Kipchoge smashed his world record! Running through the Brandenburg Gate to the finish line was the experience of a lifetime!” Jeff is fundraising and you can support him and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (U.S.) here: http://linktr.ee/jefflax1. More progress has been made in the development of medications and research towards a cure in the last 5 years than in the 70 prior years. Go and make a difference. Jeff and his wife, Ann Marie, are also progressing towards a sixth star as part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors and will conclude in Tokyo in March 2023. (Any classmates in Tokyo?). Congratulations, Jeff, on your multi-faceted achievements.

John Vaccaro writes that during a recent trip to Los Angeles, California, he posted an open invitation on Facebook to meet at a local happy hour, and Ivor Clark showed up. John recently (virtually) connected with Lars Christian Torhaug as well. While Lars was at home watching fellow Norwegian Casper Ruud play in the U.S. Open on TV, John was watching it in person and they were chatting real time via Facebook Messenger. John tries to get Jim Hermens to come to New York each year for the Open, but Jim invited John to join him and Bill Root (and surely Brad Blonkvist!) to follow the ATP tour once they all retire. John sees Monica Spencer and Annie Tronoski every few months for breakfast or lunch in New York City. He also spends some time in Florida on Singer Island and would love to hear from any Class of ’97 folks in the West Palm Beach area.

Rondo Moses writes: “Greetings classmates! I am so sorry I missed all the fun at our 25th reunion in the spring. This past March marked another milestone birthday (six-zero!) for me. Because of my work schedule and other commitments, I decided to delay the official celebration until early May, a couple of weeks after the reunion. I rented a villa in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for five days and invited 14 of my closest friends to join me. Everyone had an awesome time.

“I would have enjoyed seeing all of you at the 25th and hearing about what you have been up to since the 20th reunion. While I was not there with you in person, rest assured I was with you in spirit. And several of you are friends with me on Facebook, so your posts provide a glimpse into your life.”

The Darden Class of ’97 page on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/groups/2066360/) averages only a few posts per year, unlike the active Facebook page. You don’t have to scroll too far to see Alok Vaish, Ron Green and Dan Newhall updates. There are currently 136 members. Please touch base even if you don’t want to appear in Class Notes for privacy or other reasons. We respect that. If you have published publicly, we may share, too. Otherwise, we ask permission. Feel free to share what matters to you. And with that, know that 25 November to 10 December marks 16 Days of Activism to eliminate gender-based violence (16dayscampaign.org/), a campaign that your class secretary supports to educate and empower the community; femicide is an issue in every locale around the globe. The anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the United Nations on 10 December 1948, is the final day of this campaign. We encourage you to read it, or better yet, gather a few colleagues and do a read-aloud. Human rights matter.

An update on the Class of ’97 Scholarship: During our 25th reunion year we raised

$372,215 to establish the Class of 1997 Scholarship. When we reach our next goal to raise $500,000, the scholarship can be awarded to a single student to offset onethird of their tuition. So please consider contributing as we need a bit over $100,000 to be able to award the scholarship.

If you are interested in contributing to the class scholarship fund, please reach out to associate director of annual giving Gina DeMattia at DeMattiaG@darden.virginia. edu, or you can give online here: givecampus. com/campaigns/20524/donations/new?designation=classof1997scholarship&.

1998

Bill Young wyoung44@gmail.com

Do you find yourself looking in the mirror wondering where that gray hair came from? Maybe you don’t even have hair to contemplate. You know what that means? It’s been 25 years since you graduated from business school. Mark your calendars for reunion weekend (28–30 April 2023). Much more information to follow but now is a good time to hold those dates.

Light on the updates this time so you get a Bill’s eye view of the class, for better or for worse. I’m just back from my first ever campervan trip with my wife. We are not what you would call camping people, but I pulled off campfires on three out of four nights without use of any unnatural supplies beyond a butane lighter. Flashbacks to our Darden Outdoors Club adventure in August 1996. I think the statute of limitations officially runs out at our 25th reunion, so all stories are fair game. My wife and I had a great, relaxed time away, although we just missed seeing Sam Jones as he was exiting Charleston, South Carolina, to come up to Virginia for a UVA Sorority formal with his daughter as we were arriving in South Carolina. Sam is a wealth of recommendations if you’re looking to head to the low country. We were able to enjoy the great outdoors, including a nice paddle around the marshlands that surround Charleston.

While we did enjoy kayaking, it was also a segue to an update from our most avid class of ’98 paddler, Andrea White. After taking a COVID-19 layoff and relocating from Nashville, Tennessee, to Atlanta, Georgia, Andrea has managed to turn her volunteering passion into a day-job; she is working at Georgia River Network by day and volunteering as the chair of the Southeastern Region for the American Canoe Association in her free time. She’s kind of a big deal as Paddling Magazine recently named her one of their Top 20 River Heroes based on her success bringing kayak safety and rescue training to beginners. You can read the full profile of her work by going to paddlingmag. com and searching “rescue Tennessee.” We’re hoping to get out on a kayak soon in her newly adopted city, as our daughter is in her third year at Georgia Tech.

Speaking of our accomplished athletes, Caroline Worrall took a brief break from her ultra-biking to give an update from Gainesville, Florida. She’s already planning to make the trek north (by plane, not bike I believe) for the reunion and is challenging everyone else to make the trip as well. With the arrival of fall weather in Florida, she’s switched from road and gravel cycling to mountain biking while juggling the throes of college applications. She’s working in finance but it’s top secret, so you’ll have to come in April to find out what that means.

Last but certainly not least, Peter Thoms chimed in from Coronado, California, across the bay from San Diego, where he and Janet (Fitzgerald) Toms have lived since 2002. They have two boys and two girls, and the kids are starting to leave the house. Their oldest daughter, Carly, is now a sophomore at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, joining Jason Hart’s oldest son, Ryan. Our class is certainly doing their part in keeping the wheels of commerce running through tuition payments. Their boys, Evan and Colin, are in high school and younger daughter Anna is in middle school, so the empty nest is still a distant thought. Janet and Pete work together on Orion Capital Management LLC, which is a registered investment advisory firm started in 2002. Nestor Blanco and his family (wife Laura and sons Fernando and Ricardo) braved customs and a cross-country flight to pay a visit over the summer from Toronto. The Darden bonds remain strong.

That’s the news for now. Don’t forget to mark your calendar for next April!

1999

Bob Loria; Rob Steinberger robertloria@gmail.com robsteinberger@hotmail.com

Scott Swindell recently switched roles at AT&T and joined the salesforce implementation team back in March. Last year, he also began financing land buys, specializing in Westlake and Southlake, Texas, and reports that it is going well. Scott recently celebrated his five-year Alive Day (6 October) as a result of a stroke from a blood clot. Scott continues to volunteer at the stroke/brain unit at Medical City Plano on a weekly basis. He recently spent time out in Phoenix, Arizona, taking care of his mother until her passing. While in Phoenix, he got to see Shubha Prashant Ukhade and her husband, Jeff and Jill Dixon, and Steven Wu. Ron Wihardja and Scott got together for coffee when Ron was recently in Dallas, Texas, back in August.

From Stephen Wu: “2022 is definitely an eventful year! In January, I decided to hang up my hat and call it early retirement (or just a long overdue sabbatical? We’ll see)