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CLASS NOTES
Everett
Weinberger Goran Puljic was spotted in Frankfurt, where he recently moved to run Goldman Sachs's fixed income, currencies and commodities division in Germany. Thus far, it's been a great experience for him, wife Melinda, and sons Nicholas (4) and Tucker (3). Sergio Akselrad continues in Miami Beach, working for Goldman Sachs's private wealth management group. Perry Van Der Meer is currently deputy editorial director at Talk magazine. Anthony Pinn, associate professor of religious studies at Macalester College, has been invited to give the prestigious Edward Cadbury Lectures at the University of Birmingham in the UK. The List continues to bear fruit, provoking several to write in before they are "cold-called!" Michael Solender graduated from Yale Law School and went on to become a partner at Arnold & Porter in D.C. He's now general counsel of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and lives in Virginia with wife, Holly Fogler, and three children, Brian, Morgan and Andrew. Michael also filled us in on Aaron Cooperband, who graduated from UCLA business school and had a very successful run in investment banking. He's now a semi-retired private investor and lives with his wife, Fumi, and two children in Tiberon, Calif. Guillermo Garcia works at the Industrial Bank of Japan (soon to be Mizuho Financial Group after the merger with Fuji and DKB) and lives on Long Island with wife, Lorraine. He writes: "I have three great children, Thomas, Gina and Christian, who keep me thinking like a young man even though I feel older every time I look at the magazine and realize more and more classes are filling in the space after the Class of '86 notes." Ira Pataki, on last issue's List, received a second BA/MA in English language and literature at Oxford and a law degree from Northwestern. After practicing law back home at Pittsburgh, he joined with brother Robert '84 and father Richard '58 to form postcards.com, a network of electronic greeting card sites featuring their unique digital greetings. "A true family business in the Digital Age - and all Lion!" Ira still produces the same cartoon strip he originally produced as an undergrad in the Columbia Sundial literary magazine. He and wife, Sherri, have two children, Katie (5) and Matthew (2). And in his free time, he's finishing his first novel. He'd love to hear from fellow classmates at: ira@postcards.com. Because you asked for it, here's the fourth installment of the List: John Featherman, Benjamin Shykind, Bernard Eydt, Raymond Perez, Hal Liebes, Douglas Woodward, Neil Uncapher, Philip Birnbaum, John Sciarra and George Klenkar. Again, the List is provided to remind those who have never appeared in the column to update us on what's occurred in their lives over the last 15 years. Of course, all others are encouraged to respond as well.
Robert V. Wolf Judy Kim called to recruit me for the Reunion Committee. Having talked to a number of our classmates recently, she was full of column-worthy news. So I asked if she wouldn't mind writing it up. As you'll see below, she's a natural at tracking people down and pumping them for information. So now, here are the words of guest columnist Judy Kim: "Well, first I want to let everyone know that our 15th-year reunion is coming up and lots of people have started thinking about what kind of reunion we want. To that end, a committee has started to form and I would like to encourage anyone who would like to attend future events to e-mail me at judy@cat.nyu.edu. As you will see from the following list, the ninth floor of Carman will be a dominant presence at the reunion unless more people participate. "A kickoff reception took place at my apartment in January. Fifteen folks attended. The idea for a class get-together came from Alex Navab, our former class president, who has just become a partner at KKR. His long history of leadership and success at KKR will come in handy if ever there is a hostile takeover bid of our Alma Mater. Congratulations on your achievement, Alex. "Besides Alex, other committee members so far are Christine Beeby and Renan Pierre '86, '87E, who have just recently moved to a new apartment on the Upper West Side with their new baby. Christine is on the board of directors of the Alumni Association and works in advertising. Her husband, Renan, is an architect with his own firm. Another class couple, Gus Moore and Dawn Santana, have an adorable 4-year old son, Ian, who is very tall for his age. Gus and Dawn are also planning a move to a new place on the Upper West Side. Gus is the head of risk management at Sumitomo Bank Capital Markets and Dawn is a former legal services attorney. Gus is organizing a triathlon club and would welcome classmates who would be interested in training together. Please contact him at augiemoore@yahoo.com. "On January 20, 2001, Yale Fergang, the man with a self-professed finance-oriented sense of humor, was married to Donna Brown in New York. They both work and live in NYC and plan to stay in the city after their marriage. Peter James Ross, formerly of the ninth floor of Carman and a vice president in the media group at Merrill Lynch, trots the globe for Rupert Murdoch. Another media guru is Peter's former roommate, Luciano Siracusano, who is the editor of Individual Investor. You can catch Luciano on CNN or in Yahoo.com's archives, where he expounds his Internet market theories. Dora Kim, a government bond trader at Commerzbank Securities, lives on the Upper East Side and on the weekends goes to her horse farm in Millbrook, N.Y. She's in touch with Chris Sullivan, who just had his second baby and is living in southern New Jersey, and also with Anson Snyder '87GS, who works at Wells Fargo in San Francisco. "More class news: Keith Thomson resides in New York and is still drawing cartoons. When I talked to him about reunion, he told me that he is working on a project to draw and direct his very own cartoon TV show. A life-long dream come true for Keith - he is finally being paid to doodle. "Congratulations also to Jonathan Wald, who has been named executive producer of The Nightly News on NBC. Mitch Swergold is still cycling, or at least was spotted wearing the clothes of a cyclist, on the Upper East Side where he resides. When not on his bike, he is a managing director with Intrepid Capital, a hedge fund affiliated with George Soros. David Kanefsky is currently a lawyer specializing in mutual funds with Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft. He and Robin are the proud parents of a seven-month old son. If you missed the January reunion event, a second reunion event will be held over the fall, so please make sure to update your information with Adlar Garcia '95, e-mail: ag80@columbia.edu, who will handle our reunion events for the Alumni Office. "As for myself, I have left the law and am currently with the office of industrial liaison of New York University as the director of multimedia and information technologies. I handle the licensing of high-tech patents invented by NYU professors and create spin-off companies around the patents. In my spare time, I fund-raise for Rocky Chin as the chairman of his finance committee. Rocky is a democratic candidate for New York City Council for District 1. "Rob and I also lived on the ninth floor of Carman our freshman year and we both are curious as to the whereabouts of Rob's freshman year roommate, Rick Russell, and Miguelina Rodriguez, my freshman year suitemate. If anyone knows the whereabouts of Rick or Miggie, please ask them to contact Rob or me."
George
Gianfrancisco Happy New Year! I know that this year will be the one that brings all of our hopes and dreams to fruition. Congratulations to Stephie Schwartz who got hitched in NYC last April. Penny Kutlow (now Tyson) and hubbie Mark, had a baby boy, Jack. And Ivana Kadija and Brian Wimer had a baby girl, Luca. Lawrence Trilling writes me from LA where he and wife Jennifer (Barnard '88) and children Jonas and Lyla are all happy and golden this time of the year. Lawrence wrote and directed the HBO film Dinner & Driving and is producing the TV series Felicity. Jeff Cohen is working for the on-line mall and mutual fund, Stockback.com. David Patchefsky completed his residency in Philly and is moving into private practice. Sam Kim has just started his own investment enterprise, The Willow Fund, in New Jersey, where he lives with his wife and two sons. Henry Hershkowitz, Steve Kantor and Nancy Yaffa (Barnard '88) recently opened a new restaurant, The Dining Room, on the Upper East Side to complement their Tribeca eatery, The Screening Room. Finally, I received warm greetings from former soccer goalie Todd Johnson asking for Paul San Filipo's (Flipper) new numbers. Todd reminded me about the good old days of riding those yellow school buses up to Baker Field, the tension about whether they would make it all the way there, and the very real potential for a knife fight with one of the drivers. Todd and his wife Mary live on a horse farm in Nebraska. He has three boys, Eddie (3) and twins Sam and Charlie (2). Todd is group vp for The Gallup Organization in Latin America and spends about half his time away from the back 40. Learning how much time Todd spends away from home made me realize just how much time we all spend away from home. No matter where you were from before the fall of 1984, you were forever from Columbia after that. Sometimes I miss home, as I'm sure Todd does when he's sitting in the Red Carpet Clubs of airports south of the border. I miss The Pub, and sometimes I even miss the food. I miss the Quad and tapping a keg on the Steps and tossing a ball cap over Alma's head. I miss Four Carman and Art Hum. I even miss that creaky bus ride up to Baker, and the anticipation of finishing the trip on foot. I miss it all, because all of it is home.
Amy Perkel Although he started with the class of 1990, since he graduated in 1989, we'll claim Dave Vatti as our own. Dave, his wife Neeta and their 2-year old son Rayan live in Hamden, Conn., just 10 minutes north of New Haven. Dave can be found cheering on the Lions when Columbia competes against Yale in basketball and football on the Elis' home turf. Fellow Columbians and former/current colleagues, David Atkins '78 and Bill Longa '70, usually join him. The former is a fellow partner with Dave at the law firm of Zeldes, Needle & Cooper, a 30-lawyer litigation firm in Bridgeport, while Bill, a former partner, has since left to form his own practice. Dave has been with the same firm for the past nine years-how's that for longevity-specializing in the area of civil litigation, including commercial litigation, employment and personal injury. While he's very mild-mannered on the phone, Dave loves arguing in court, finding it "adversarial, yet fun." Keeping it all in the family, his wife works four days a week, also as a civil litigator. When pressed, Dave admits to liking ABC's The Practice, a personal favorite of this correspondent. While he describes it as being over-dramatized and not particularly realistic, he concurs that the acting is darn good! The most realistic show of that genre, in his astute opinion, is Law and Order, another personal favorite of this correspondent. (Since we're on the topic, if there are any Inside Cell Block F fans out there, get in touch.) For those Columbians who delight in Columbia television references, particularly attentive watchers will know that the Adam Schiff character (played by Steven Hill), the show's last district attorney, earned his law degree from Columbia-info gleaned from a comment made by one of his business associates regarding the Lions' athletic prowess. The ever-fascinating Joanna Usher Silver switched to magazine publishing in 1996. She is the financial services director at Gourmet magazine, part of Conde Nast Publications, which means that she sells premium advertising space to clients in private banking, credit cards, mutual funds, etc. She assumed this role in May 2000 after...drum roll please...she took 15 months off from Money magazine to be with her daughter, Caroline, who will be 2 in February. Rumor has it Caroline is "super cute and lots of fun" and enjoys "boogying with Country Elmo and chowing on ice cream." In other news, Ed Kopel and Bjorn Slate recently formed SK Architecture, a firm specializing in architecture, interior design, development, and project management. The two met many moons ago as fellow residents of the fourth floor of Carman, and even back then schemed to work together at some later date. The two are eager to link up with additional classmates that could expand the scope of their architectural practice into related fields that share an emphasis on design excellence. You can get in touch with the gents in New York at (212) 874-7478 or by e-mail at slateandkopel@earthlink.net. After graduating from Columbia, both earned graduate degrees in architecture-Bjorn from MIT and Ed from Yale. Since tidying up their graduate work in the early '90s, both worked as designers and project managers for various architects and developers. Prior to forming the firm, and since Bjorn moved back to the New York area nearly two years ago, they began doing freelance work together. On a personal note, Bjorn married Kimberly Russell '90 a short time after both graduated from Columbia. Ed has been married for three years to Andrea Salwen, Barnard '91, who is director of program services for City Meals on Wheels, a venture she has been a part of since graduating from the Kennedy School of Government. In addition to being a licensed architect in New York and Connecticut (with reciprocity agreements to obtain a license in any of the 50 states), Ed has recently completed the renovation of the Loews New York Hotel as well as the bar at the Shoreham. For added fun, Ed will be teaching a course in hotel development this spring at the NYU Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Travel Administration. So for anyone contemplating some architectural work, please get in touch with Ed and Bjorn! Much thanks to Stephanie Falcone Bernik, who wrote in for the first time since we graduated more than 11 years ago (thanks for the reminder, Stephanie!). Congratulations are in order on a number of fronts. She recently finished a breast surgery fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center after having completed her general surgery fellowship at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. Right now, she's enjoying motherhood. Stephanie and her husband, Tom, whom she met and married during their surgical residency, had a baby girl, Hana, on April 15, 2000. This past November, it was back to work for Stephanie as a breast surgeon at the St. Vincent's Comprehensive Breast Center. The family is living on Long Island while Tom does his vascular surgery fellowship. Stephanie notes, "It seems as though the training never ends." No doubt, Stephanie's patients are in very good hands. Please pardon the many non-sequiturs in this column, but do you ever find yourself envious of the lives of others? Well, the green monster surfaced upon reading Peter Saint-Andre's e-mail. He and his wife, Elisa, moved to Denver last year, and he reports that they're loving it. He just started working for Jabber.com, a company founded early in 2000 to support and capitalize on the Jabber open-source instant messaging system. Peter notes that it's as close as he can imagine to a dream job, because he gets to work full-time on a project that he has been supporting in his spare time for almost a year as an open-source contributor. Plus, he gets to bike to work on one of Denver's many bike trails, and he spends his day in the funky LoDo neighborhood. Funny, despite this being the first time that I've heard of the LoDo neighborhood, the name alone emotes a mega hip and coolness, and I'm aching to move there. Anyone up for joining me for a visit at least? My favorite seasons are spring and summer. Regardless, congrats to Peter on his cross-country move and new ventures. And as a reminder, check out Peter's thoughtful poetry and other creative stuff at www.saint-andre.com, if you've yet to visit. Thanks to Susan Shin for sharing an amusing tale. Susan left Pennie & Edmonds in April after 7 1/2 years to join the New York office of Brown Raysman Millstein Felder and Steiner in May 2000 as counsel to lead the trademark practice. She visited the California office a few weeks ago, where she met John Kirkland '86 in person for the first time, after talking to him on the phone since May. While the firm has a strong general practice, Brown Raysman, Susan notes, is particularly well known and highly regarded for its IT and related practices, such as intellectual property. So you know the drill: if you're in dire need of such services, you know who to get in touch with. On the personal front, and I'm assuming this is fair game since Susan provided me with this info in written form, Susan notes she managed to embarrass herself by falling asleep at the Louis Vuitton party during fashion week. She had rushed there from work at 11 p.m. and the 15 or so couches - "LVMH embossed, of course," - were just too tempting, and, perhaps in dire need of a relaxing respite, she fell asleep to the crooning of Aretha Franklin, only to awaken to the hot and bright lights of two video cameras as a person with a microphone asked her, "How is it that you can sleep through this, THE fashion party of the week? Who are you?" Despite her initial discomfiture, her lawyerly instincts kicked in and she demanded the film, saying they could not air it sans permission, which, according to Susan, "they most certainly did not have." Thank you for being such a good sport by providing us with this entertaining anecdote, Susan. And we'll conclude this column with some brief notes on my favorite Columbia classmate in the Bay Area (I'm neither admitting nor denying that I only know one classmate in the Bay Area), Dan Loflin. Ladies, yes, Dan continues to look and act like the awesome Texan that he is. Indeed this correspondent was at Baker Field for Homecoming against Dartmouth. As an aside, I am administering a beat-down to any and all classmates that reside in NYC and read this column (which implies you have some degree of school spirit) for not attending that game. I saw not a single familiar face among classmates other than pre-arranged coordination with Lisa Landau and Jill Pollack, and kudos to Chris Della Pietra, who was there. We made the mistake of seeing him briefly from afar with the thought of catching up with him later only to have never caught sight of him again. Oh, well, our loss. Anywho, getting back to Dan, no less than two lovely ladies-who will remain nameless-asked me specifically if I knew how Dan was doing, despite the fact that we hardly hung out together while in college. He has situated himself in Silicon Valley and lives a stone's throw away from me in Palo Alto. As for background, Dan left the McKinsey Houston office and moved to the West Coast in March to help start Trigo Technologies, a software company just south of San Francisco, where he has been running their sales and professional services. Remaining true to his roots, he's still dabbling in the cattle business back in Texas, and Dan's keeping up with the boys, seeing a lot of Pete Davis and Bob Giannini. He also caught up with Sunil Shaw and Tom Yang in October. When he's not traveling for business, I coax him into having lemon drop cocktails with me at my Menlo Park home (ask Jeeves for a life altering recipe-consider substituting lemon vodka for raspberry, and don't skimp on the freshly squeezed lemon juice; that's the key ingredient, which pardons any measurement indiscretions). He says he's "eager to hear from other alums in the area," so track him down at www.trigo.com. Regards...ah yes...and best wishes for a fantabulous 2001! More power to the people. Fight the power. Don't give it all up for the man, etc.
Dan Max
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