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UPDATE!
- February, 2000
Since the last update, Maura Lynch has moved yet again, this time to Kosovo. This move marks the seventh country she has lived in since we graduated from Fletcher less than five years ago. Chris Goode is still working in the Washington office of with Bombardier Aerospace, which owns Learjet, deHavilland, Short Brothers, and Canadair. Caroline and Eric Sanderson have moved to Japan. Eric will head his firm's operations in Tokyo, and Caroline will spearhead Nortel Asia's communications web site. Debbie Isser is working at Morrison and Foerster in New York and enjoying married life. Zia Daniell Wigder is also enjoying married life and is the director of the Broadband & Wireless Strategies practice working at Jupiter Communications, a New York-based Internet research and advisory firm. Erin Conaton is now supervising a team of analysts at the National Security Studies Group.
Mark Baker has left the Commerce Department for the private sector. He is now the Vice President for Trade for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a trade association for the U.S. liquor industry. (Perhaps we should have our fifth reunion at Mark's place.) Also leaving government for the private sector is Alice Hurley, who is now working in the credit area that supports trading activities at Credit Suisse First Boston. Professor Duncan Hollis has started teaching an international law class at George Mason University. His full-time job is still at the State Department, where he is now Deputy Director for Treaty Affairs. Yours truly, Larry Hanauer, continues to pursue the Administration's publicly stated goal of overthrowing the Iraqi government from his desk as the Country Director for Iraq and Iran in the Secretary of Defense's office.
Class Secretary:
We can't believe it, but we are fast approaching the fifth anniversary of our graduation. Please consider joining us for a great weekend of catching up on reunion weekend, which will take place in Medford from 19-21 May 2000. For information on the reunion or on contributing to our five-year class gift, please contact Erin Conaton or Larry Hanauer (hanauerl@bellatlantic.net). Hope to see you there.
In the meantime, we're scattered all across the globe:
Larry Hanauer, F'95
1701 16th Street, NW #220
Washington, DC 20009
E-mail: lhanauer@bellatlantic.net
Class web page: http://rlt.freeservers.com/fletcher95.htm
On the heels of establishing the enormously successful Tallinn Stock Exchange -- a job she got by answering an ad in the newspaper! -- Helo Meigas became deputy governor of Estonia's central bank in June 1998. Central European magazine gave her credit for "giving foreign financiers a clear sense of transparency -- a sense that there is a system in place that works." Sasha Zakharov got married to Larissa, "the girl that I was looking for all those years," in Moscow in February 1999. Larissa is working towards her PhD in Human Rights at the Moscow Academy of Diplomacy. Check out the wedding pictures on the class web page. Fiona Wilson has been hanging our with drug users, male prostitutes and gangsters in St. Petersburg, from where she manages Population Services International's operations in Russia, including (and hence the company she keeps) a Federation-wide communications campaign to promote safe sex. Though she's enjoying the challenges of overseeing four offices scattered through Russia, 30 staff members and six new projects, she plans to end her two-year tour in Russia in January, ending her seven-year exile from home to return to the UK in January. Annika Hansen has been promoted to senior scientist at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and is still working mainly on peacekeeping issues. She gets to travel to all sorts of places to present to the results of her work. She's also crunching to finish her PhD dissertation comparing the implementation of peace agreements in Bosnia and Angola. She encourages all her classmates to visit her cosy new loft apartment in Oslo. Arnout Brouwers has been working with the Dutch Ministry of Defence since April 1996 as a policy advisor on UN peacekeeping issues in the Department of General Policy Affairs. Joel Rehnstrom is working as a monitoring and evaluation adviser for the UN program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva.
Maura Lynch left her post as Catholic Relief Services' Assistant Country Representative in Bosnia to take a Junior Professional Officer job in Kenya with the UN World Food Program. Soon after, however, she rejoined CRS to move back to the Balkans. She now heads CRS's operations in Durres, Albania, the country's primary port and main point of entry for relief supplies. Maura appears to hold the class record for living in the most countries (six -- India, Armenia, Georgia, Bosnia, Kenya, and Albania) in our four years out of school. Ricardo Tejada left Washington D.C. and the World Bank in late 1998 for London. He received "an offer he couldn't refuse" from United News & Media, a British media group, where he is Director of Communications. He married Paloma Marchand on January 3, 1998 (oops, guess I missed a few alumni newsletters) in Lima, Peru. Check out the wedding photos at http://website.lineone.net/~dingofrog/. Bjorn Gillsater is enjoying the life of a Eurocrat, having completed his first year on detail from the Swedish Ministry of Finance to the European Commission's Finance department in Brussels. Not too far away, Ann-Sophie Cremers is living in Bruges with her husband of two years and expecting her first child. She's enjoying working as a market analyst and is hoping to combine her experience with some non-profit work. Andrew Bovarnick is still working for ERM's environmental policy and sustainable development department in London. Among other projects, he is evaluating European Commission programs to strengthen government institutions and regulations in Azerbaijan and Georgia. He is also helping regional governments in Belarus design biodiversity and nature protection projects. Among Andrew's travels was a trip to Brussels, where he proudly reports that he beat Bjorn in tennis.
Maria Farnon is still in London doing internet marketing for Level 3. She's enjoyed visits from lots of Fletcherites as they cross the globe, including Duncan Hollis (enroute between Croatia and Qatar), Ladeene Freimuth (on her return trip from Kosovo), Jen Gergen (on vacation), Ernie Wright, F'94 (on vacation), Maura Lynch (taking a break from Bosnia), and Larry Hanauer (returning home from Macedonia). Make your reservations now at the Farnon Inn before she gets booked up! Klaus Sniedze reports that he has been Head of Americas and Australia Division at Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the past 2 years. He got married in August 1995 (right after the School) and spent the next three years working at the Latvian Embassy in Moscow. Most of his free time is now spent with his two-year old son Robert. Caroline Anthamatten is working for the Swiss government on a project aimed at reforming the government and the federal administration.
ASIA
Caroline Blume and Eric Sanderson welcomed Molly Dutton Sanderson into the world in Hong Kong on July 21. Weighing in at eight pounds, six ounces and 20.5 inches long, she will soon begin her preparations to enter Fletcher's class of 2024. Tim Mak is a commercial lawyer at Gilbert & Tobin in Sydney, where he focuses on focusing on anti-trust law. He invites anyone coming to Sydney for the Olympics to drop him a line at otty@tig.com.au. Winning the contest for most creative F'95 wedding location, Brigitte Smith got married in August on top of a mountain in the Tasmanian wilderness. Sonoko Kiyotaki-Takahashi writes from Tokyo that she gave birth to daughter Aiko on August 14. Check out the photos on the class web page. Karntimon Ruksakiati has served since July as the second secretary at the Thai embassy in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), his first foreign assignment. Bo Tedards is a contributing editor at the Taipei Times (www.taipeitimes.com), Taiwan's new English-language newspaper. Po-Hui Chen writes that she has been working for The Mainland Affairs Council in Taiwan, working on relations between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. She married Peter Lan, a special assistant to Taiwan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, in January 1998. Masayo Hasegawa left the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (in Japan) in January 1999 after 12 years as the program officer in charge of global environmental issues. She joined the Toyota Motor Corporation, where he is the Project Manager for the International Issues Group in the company's Environmental Affairs Division. She has also been serving as the Program Director for Leadership for Environment and Development's (LEAD) Japan Program at Keio Research Institute.
LATIN AMERICA
Fernando Gonzalez Saiffe is working at the Mexican Foreign Ministry in the Undersecretariat for United Nations, Africa and Caribbean Affairs. He is also director for International Relations at the Anahuac University in Mexico City. Fernando Gonzalez Saiffe signed agreements between Mexico's Anahuac University, where he is the International Relations Director, and Tel Aviv University for courses on Mexican Politics, Israel, Holocaust studies, and anti-semitism in Mexico. He is also still working with the Mexican Foreign Ministry on the proposal for the United Nations' Millenium Conference, which will take place in September 2000.
AFRICA
Diane Tausner is extending her tour in Lilongwe, Malawi with NDI until September 2000. She'll continue to focus on NDI's women's program, working with women MPs and women's NGOs to advance gender-related legislation and encourage women's participation in politics.
MIDDLE EAST
Tamim Madani reports: "Despite all my attempts at trying to get involved in a different field of work I ended up in the world of business (family business to be more accurate). I am currently sitting on the board of three different companies and managing one of them here in Syria. So I am very busy running between factories, offices etc. in different cities and countries." Col. John Kruse, USMC, is in Bahrain working on the U.S. Fifth Fleet staff. Najm Akbar is Counsellor in Pakistan's two-person embassy in Beirut.
NORTH AMERICA
NORTH OF THE BORDER:Elinor Sloan reports that she is working as a defense analyst in Canada's Department of National Defence, focusing on US defense policy issues. She got her Fletcher PhD in 1997 and published a book called "Bosnia and the New Collective Security" (Praeger Publishers) in 1998. Last March she had a baby boy and is now back at work, juggling baby and job.
WEST OF THE APPALACHIANS:In the Chicago area, Karen Hultgren-Bruce is doing marketing for OWP&P Architects, Chicago's largest full-service architecture firm. She and hubby Steven bought their first house, an 80-year old home in Oak Park, earlier this year and are busy renovating it themselves. Lee Caplan split the summer between his second and third years at Berkeley Law School between the State Department's Legal Advisor's Office and Steptoe & Johnson, both in Washington. He will clerk for a judge on the Fourth Circuit in Baltimore next year before settling in to firm life at Steptoe. His better half and fellow law student, Christina Kohn Caplan, spent the summer at the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement office. A glutton for punishment, Christina reports that she loves law school. Kim Barry finished a clerkship with Judge Betty Fletcher on the Federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. As of early October, she is on a 3-month trip to Australia (home), Vietnam, Laos and Hong Kong and will return to Seattle in December. CDR Kevin Haney, based in Coronado, California, is the Air Operations Officer on the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74). Stennis is preparing for her second ever deployment in January, when she will head to the Arabian Gulf to support US operations over southern Iraq and elsewhere in the region. Kevin is also flying the F-14 Tomcat again when the carrier's embarked air wing deploys with it. Back on land, Kevin's wife Blair gave birth to the couple's third child, Patrick William, in August 1998. Patrick just turned one and, in an age-old tradition, will be baptized on Stennis using the ship's bell. Olaf Groth is the director of international development and government relations for Vodafone AirTouch Satellite Services in San Francisco. Olaf has been elected to the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors at the German American Chamber of Commerce West and to the prestigious International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Olaf has helped launch a Fletcher Alumni Club for San Francisco, which has the fourth largest concentration of Fletcher alumni in the world (who knew?). Check out the club's activities at http://www.egroups.com/list/fletcher-west/info.html. For information, contact Olaf at OJG@Fletcher.alumlink.com.
BOSTON & NEW ENGLAND:Farah Pandith continues her work developing international business for a ML Strategies, a Boston consulting firm. She was also just selected to be a Fellow at The Salzburg Institute this October for a program on "Race and Ethnicity: Social Change through Public Awareness." She had a chance to discuss Kashmir with Secretary of State Albright during a White House dinner in honor of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak this past summer. Marc Parrish left the finance world to become a software developer with Charles River Development, a small IT firm that makes Powerbuilder products for mutual fund companies. Anthony Chase reports that he is one chapter away from finishing his dissertation and is teaching at both Boston College and Wheaton College. The University of California Press recently accepted a book he is co-editing with fellow Fletcher grad Maryam Elahi entitled "Independent Thinkers on Human Rights in the Arab World." Martha (Bory) Culver got a new job last Fall with the Futures Group near Hartford, CT, which was then acquired by Deloitte Consulting in Boston. She and husband Ken moved back to Boston this summer and are loving life in Newton. Martha is now doing strategic scenario planning and merger integration work, an unlikely but interesting combination. Jean Schere is continuing as a Research Associate at Fletcher as well as at Harvard Law School. Joshua Nyambose, who is working on his doctorate at Tufts' School of Nutrition, was profiled in Tuftonia, the Tufts University alumni magazine, this past Spring. Larry Rothenberg is enjoying his second year at Harvard Law School. He worked at a firm in New York last summer and is considering getting into, among other things, international trade, project finance, and international litigation/arbitration. Following his last assignment in the Army teaching International Relations at the US Military Academy, Kyle Nickerson joined Cabletron Systems as a Federal Programs Manager. Kyle and his wife Diane now live in New Hampshire with their two children. Joe Vorbach, now in a permanent teaching position at the US Coast Guard Academy, moved in to a new home with wife Colleen, son Dylan (now 6), and daughter Mary Frances (20 months). He's planning (hoping?) to finish his PhD by December of 2000.
NEW YORK:Toby Knapp got married last summer (1998) in Vermont to Deborah Lowery and is living in New York, where Deborah is an Assistant District Attorney and Toby is practicing at Davis Polk & Wardwell with fellow Fletcher alums Saurabh Shah and Carlos Pelayo. Diana Quintero has left her job as television producer at NBC News to become vice president of marketing at Chase Manhattan Bank, where she will head up worldwide marketing for the bank's economics division. Felicia Swindells tied the knot to Dany Beylerian (F'96) on May 15th in New York. Traveling from all corners of the world for the event were Erin Conaton, Yvonne Agyei and hubby Eric Rosenberg, Josh Lincoln and his wife Monette, Fiona Wilson, Alice Hurley, Andrew Bovarnick, Karim Makdisi, Farah Pandith, and Larry Hanauer, as well as F'96ers Tom Espy, and Magnus Oberg. Though she can't get enough of mergers and acquisitions, Felicia's taskmasters at White & Case unchained her from her desk long enough for a two-week honeymoon in Greece. Josh Lincoln spent the summer in Africa doing some research for his dissertation. Alice Hurley is still at the Federal Reserve Bank, where, rather than hop from one bank project to another every few months, she now has a more or less permanent assignment as examiner at JP Morgan. She is also halfway through a MA program in math in finance at NYU. After about two years of practicing corporate law at Davis Polk & Wardwell, David Schwimmer switched over to investment banking in the Financial Institutions Group at Goldman Sachs. Me Ae Geoum is still at KEDO and making her way through CUNY's PhD program in Political Science. Donna Demenus Dholakia and her husband Sam welcomed Andrew J. Dholakia to the family in July. Linda Maguire writes that, since leaving our nation's fair capital a year ago, she has been working on governance issues and institutions in developing countries in UNDP's Management Development and Governance Division. Always one to juggle several balls at once, Linda is also training for the New York marathon and is planning a Fall 2000 wedding in New England. Brooks Olbrys recently left the law for investment banking. After practicing mergers and acquisitions law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for two and a half years, he headed over to the M&A group at Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette (DLJ). Rafael Docavo-Malvezzi left the Council on Foreign Relations in March 1998 and is now running the New York office of Technology Holdings International, a group of Latin American investors focusing on the identification and development of information technology and telecom projects in Latin America. He and his wife Tamara are expecting the arrival of their first child in November.
WASHINGTON:Duncan Hollis continues to work as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the Department of State. He's been making frequent trips abroad to deal with embassy security and property issues following the bombings in East Africa last August, traveling to Croatia, Qatar, Indonesia, Thailand and Russia in the first half of 1999 alone. Despite his hectic schedule, he manages to keep up with fellow D.C. Fletcherites whenever possible (though he's yet to pay his DC alumni club dues). Erin Conaton is working on a study of national security challenges for the 21st century at the Pentagon's Commission on National Security. She just moved into a new condo in Arlington. Desiree Filippone has left OMB for the Hill, where she is the foreign affairs and defense advisor for Senator Evan Bayh. She is enjoying the pace of the Hill and the breadth of subjects she covers tremendously. Hubby of four years Bob Filippone (PhD '95) continues to work for Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) on foreign affairs and defense issues. *Dr.* Evelyn Farkas reports that she successfully defended her Fletcher PhD dissertation, "U.S. Policy Towards Partition: The U.S. Approach to Secessionist or Irredentist Movements in Ethiopia, Bosnia and Iraq," on August 20. She continues to teach at the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia. Ever so modest, Mark Baker reports that "I've got a fabulous apartment, a head-turning car, and now a gorgeous dog." Mark continues to work on NAFTA issues at the Department of Commerce. Howard Sklamberg is an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, D.C. Since graduating, he's had a bunch of legal jobs -- clerking for a federal judge, working for a Senate committee, and now being a federal prosecutor. He's lived in Washington since 1996. Matt Levitt notes that sons Tani (6) and Uriel (3) have a new baby brother. Yona was born on July 7, 1999, and has red hair like his brothers. Stephan Berwick chose to serve his first tour as a State Department Foreign Service Officer in Washington so he could work on transnational trade and technology transfer issues. Over the past two years he's taken extended trips to Tunisia, Lebanon, Malta, Cyprus, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines. He is preparing for an overseas tour in Asia, possibly to begin late summer or fall of 2000. Stephan took the plunge and married his long-time girlfriend, Patricia Sadiq, last year. Christian Hougen is looking for government mismanagement (can anyone say "Sisyphus"?) at the GAO's national security and international affairs division. His report on the defense spending of European NATO allies took him to Bonn, Prague, and Rome. Christian also led a review of the World Food Program's controls over U.S. food aid to North Korea. Daughter Helen spent the summer in China and just started middle school. Christian spends his (limited) spare time souping up his Honda del Sol in expectations that it will be displayed in the February 2000 "World of Wheels" show in Virginia. Finally, yours truly, Larry Hanauer, recently wrapped up two years of working on Eastern European issues in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He was awarded the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Service Medal, the Defense Department's third-highest civilian award, for his work on NATO enlargement and Kosovo and his management of the Southeastern Europe Defense Ministerial, the Defense Department's primary means of engaging eastern European military establishments on regional security issues. Moving on to a new challenge, he is now working on U.S. policy towards Iran and Iraq.
That's a lot of news! We hope to see you in Medford for reunion weekend on 19-21 May 2000. Please stay in touch!
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