The Kellogg-Recanati 'Dean's Dinner' event is the largest annual gathering of KR Alumni.  It is scheduled within days of KR graduation, and provides an excellent forum for alumni to meet their old friends, and for incoming alumni to celebrate graduation by meeting alumni from previous years.

The 2008 Deans Dinner - 3rd November 2008

Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg addresses an audience of 200 at the 2008 KR Deans' Dinner

Nearly 200 KR alumni, professors and staff gathered at the stylish 'Green House', near Tel-Aviv University, to renew old friendships and to welcome the new alumni class of KR11, which graduated the evening before.

Following an hour and a half of networking, eating and drinking, the speeches began!

Stuart Ballan gave a summary of past, present and future club activities, after which, Professor Asher Tishler, Dean of the Leon Recanati School of Business, gave an opening welcome.  

In addition to updating the audience on a number of activities at Kellogg, Theresa Parker, Kellogg's Assistant Dean and Director of Finance and Planning, apologized on behalf of Dean Jain, who due to unfortunate personal circumstances, had to cancel flying to Israel at the last moment.  

Professor Manuel Trajtenberg was the keynote speaker, and presented his perspective on the Israeli market in the shade of the current financial crisis, amongst other things, explaining how the fact that Israeli banks are so highly regulated contributed significantly to saving the Israel economy from the current global crisis. 

As an extension of our KR Cares community services activities, the Club raffled a weekend for 2 in the prestigious Hilton Queen of Sheba Hotel, Eilat, and in doing so, raised NIS 3,500 for the underprivileged children of the Rogozin School.  Newly married Miriam Warshaviak, (KR10), was the lucky winner of the weekend vacation! 

Our thanks to Mike Jacobs (KR-HT01) who provided the FunPix photo booth that captured 150 'moments', and to Ronen Shay, (KR01), for donating the raffle prize of a weekend for 2 in the Hilton Queen of Sheba, Eilat. (Photo Album)

The 2006 Deans Dinner - 'Celebrating 10 years of KR'

The 2005 Deans Dinner

Dean Dipak Jain addresses an audience of over 170 at the 2005 KR Alumni Club Deans Dinner, 2nd November

The 2005 Deans Dinner was held on 2nd November 2005.  With an attendance of over 170, and in the presence of Dean Dipak Jain and Dean Emeritus Don Jacobs, this event was the largest KR Alumni event to date.

The event was positioned as the launch of '2006 - The Year of Kellogg-Recanati Cares'.  KR Alumni pledged 120 hours for community projects for year 2006 KR Cares community projects.  The event also provided an excellent environment to celebrate the KR Alumni Club having won the Kellogg Outstanding Achievement in Club Leadership Award.

Dean Jacobs, Prof. Zang, Leon Recanati

As another indication of the KR Alumni Club's Alumni Helping Alumni culture, this year's event enjoyed 17 co-sponsors, compared to 16 in 2004, 10 in 2003 and 2 in 2002.  The financing provided by the generosity of the event co-sponsored enabled not only subsidized event on-the-door cost, but also, for all attendees to leave with quality, branded KR products.  This year, we produced new KR Alumni Club t-shirts and KR Alumni Club camping chairs.

  The 2004 Deans Dinner

The 2004 Deans Dinner was held on 21st November 2004, and featured a surprise 20 minute live broadcast from Dean Dipak Jain, from Kellogg.   Watch a 7-minute movie of the event, and then see the Photo Album section of this website.

With an attendance of 150, this event was the largest KR Alumni Club event to date.  The event was positioned as a major celebration for the KR Alumni Club having been selected as the International Kellogg Alumni Club of the Year.

16 KR alumni co-sponsored the event, compared to 10 in 2003 and 2 in 2002, confirming the growing Alumni Helping Alumni culture.

For the second year running, the KR Alumni Club raised money for the Alyn Children's Hospital, in Jerusalem, with prizes donated by KR Alumni and Kellogg.

For the third year running, KR Alumni left the event with branded KR items, including a KR sports bag, a KR t-shirt, and a KR hand towel, all emblazoned with the corporate logos of the respective sponsors, being Mercury, Nortel Networks and the Elran Group.

The 2003 Deans Dinner

On 27th October 2003, 130 KR alumni, Professors, KR staff and HTMS staff attended the Dean's Dinner, in the presence of Dean Dipak Jain, Dean of Kellogg, and Dean Simon Benninga, the new Dean of Tel-Aviv University's Faculty of Management.

The event, the largest annual gathering of KR alumni, represented many firsts for the KR Alumni Club.  It was the first time the KR Alumni Board organized the event from 'soup to nuts'.  It was the first time we had over 100 KR alumni attending a KR alumni event.  It was the first time 10 alumni co-sponsored a KR alumni event, which in turn significantly reduced the cost to attendees compared to last year, provided the prizes for the raffle (3 nights in Hilton Queen of Sheba, Eilat and 5 latest Microsoft games), provided the KR key-rings and KR beach towels that all attendees received, and provided the special presents, presented to our special guests.   It was the first time the KR Alumni raised money for charity.  It was the first time we've ended up with a small cash surplus after the event that will be used to subsidize a future event, which in turn means it's the first time we'll need a bank account and the first time we'll have a formal end of year audit, to be performed by a CPA from our KR alumni.  It was the first time we held an alumni event at the excellent HTMS facility, bringing KR and HTMS one step closer.  Finally, it was the first time that everyone listened intently to all the speeches!!

A year ago, we introduced the alumni helping alumni theme, and at that time, saw the first moves in the right direction when 2 alumni co-sponsored the 2002 Dean's Dinner.

This years' event represented a paradigm shift in this theme, as 10 alumni, including at least one from each of the 6 KR classes, co-sponsored the event. As importantly, several of the 10 worked exceptionally hard to ensure that whatever they were supplying for the event was supplied at the very best quality possible. This co-sponsorship was supported even further by a generous cash donation from both KR and HTMS, and by the supply of wine and a wine waiter, from Binyamina wines, the latter again organized by one of our alumni. I would like to thank the following alumni for their co-sponsorship of the event:

(KR01) Ronen Shay, Noa Shacham; (KR02) Yoel Carasso, Marcelle Amariglio; (KR03) Yechiel Kurtz, Ari Fruchter; (KR04) Guy Ben-Zvi; (KR05) Nadav Berger; (KR06) Uri Wardinon, Gadi Angel

Let's also remember that those of you who attended the event also made a contribution to the KR Alumni Club simply by attending. After all, it would have been a lonely evening without you!

Several members of the KR Alumni Board have received very positive feedback from many of you about the Dean's Dinner, and this event summary wouldn't be complete without a few well-deserved words of thanks. I'd like to especially thank Orna Barkat (KR04), Nadav Berger (KR05) and Laura Herschalg (KR04), who together were instrumental in making the Dean's Dinner a success. I'd like to also thank all the invisible angels from within both the KR and HTMS admin teams, who made the event unfold like a well-oiled machine.

We raised NIS 2,300 in 5 minutes at the Dean's Dinner for a very worthy cause, the Alyn Hospital in Jerusalem (www.alyn.org). From emails I received, I know that many of you wanted to attend the Dean's Dinner but were abroad on the day. If you would like to help boost our total donation, there's still time to donate. Email me and I'll provide the details.

On behalf of the KR Alumni Club, I'd like to welcome Dean Simon Benninga and Professor Gadi Ariav to their new positions, and to offer our thanks and best wishes to Professor Shmuel Kandel and Professor Asher Tishler as they leave the positions they've held for the last 4 years.

The KR Alumni Club is run by the alumni, for the alumni.  If you have any ideas for building additional value, please let me know. In the meantime, I hope many of you will continue to support the club by attending events.