Class Note 1997
Issue
Jul - Aug 2019
More international news. For the last column, I asked classmates living abroad what took them there, what is interesting about the worldview where they live, and when they last visited the United States. This dispatch focuses on Asia.
Drew Spencer moved to London in 2006. “I moved to London on February 1, 2006, with my (then) wife and my son, Malakai, who was just shy of his third birthday. We were having trouble getting my wife a green card, so I contacted the British embassy to see about getting a visa to work in the United Kingdom. It was so much easier, so we moved here thinking we’d try London for a little while. That was 13 years ago.
“The one thing our classmates would find interesting: Brexit and the political divide over here is causing just as much stress as President Trump and issues back home. Oh, and there’s baseball. I manage the London Mets, the five-time British national champions.
“I was last in the United States in August 2018. My fiancée, Sarah, and I brought our family to visit my mom in Wisconsin. We also stayed with Kenny Mitchell and his family and went to a White Sox game with Matt Walus and Jenn Tudder Walus. I haven’t been to Hanover since about 1999 or 2000, but I’ll be taking my son for a visit next year. He’s a sophomore at the American School in London.”
In 2000 Philip Sin left New York for an investment bank position in Hong Kong. He moved to Shanghai in 2013 and has been there since. “Back in 2016 many people in China were hoping that Trump would get elected on the belief that a businessman would be more friendly to China and pro-business. But to their surprise, Trump put together a team that was unfriendly to other countries and a foreign policy headache for all concerned. The U.S. government is blocking most investments by Chinese companies into the United States, which makes my job more challenging than before.
“I visited New York and New Jersey with my family in 2015 and was traveling to California quite a bit for work in 2016 and 2017. But the last time I was in Hanover was way back in 1998, when I was working in New York. In Shanghai I reconnected with Samson Popowicz, and we would find time to hang out on the rare occasions when we are both in the city and not traveling. Samson has been living in China since 2001, following a stint at NASA working on the International Space Station program and then a fellowship at Cornell to study Chinese. He originally planned to try his hand at something related to Russia and the Center for Internet Security but the economy and environment didn’t seem as appealing as China. In China Samson has always worked at Scandinavian companies, something about their work culture being more amenable and the time difference being more favorable.
“Only having returned to Hanover once after graduation to dig his Mazda out of a five-foot block of snow, Samson seldom travels back to the United States, and his work is mostly focused on the Asia region, especially in developing economies and developing businesses in these regions.
“There are about 30 or so active alumni currently living or working in Shanghai, and many more have come and left, so our chat group has about 300 people from many classes. I cohosted the welcome dinner to admitted students for the class of ’22 last year and look forward to doing it again this year for the ’23s.”
Take care and keep sending your news!
—Jason Casell, 10106 Balmforth Lane, Houston, TX 77096; jhcasell@gmail.com
Drew Spencer moved to London in 2006. “I moved to London on February 1, 2006, with my (then) wife and my son, Malakai, who was just shy of his third birthday. We were having trouble getting my wife a green card, so I contacted the British embassy to see about getting a visa to work in the United Kingdom. It was so much easier, so we moved here thinking we’d try London for a little while. That was 13 years ago.
“The one thing our classmates would find interesting: Brexit and the political divide over here is causing just as much stress as President Trump and issues back home. Oh, and there’s baseball. I manage the London Mets, the five-time British national champions.
“I was last in the United States in August 2018. My fiancée, Sarah, and I brought our family to visit my mom in Wisconsin. We also stayed with Kenny Mitchell and his family and went to a White Sox game with Matt Walus and Jenn Tudder Walus. I haven’t been to Hanover since about 1999 or 2000, but I’ll be taking my son for a visit next year. He’s a sophomore at the American School in London.”
In 2000 Philip Sin left New York for an investment bank position in Hong Kong. He moved to Shanghai in 2013 and has been there since. “Back in 2016 many people in China were hoping that Trump would get elected on the belief that a businessman would be more friendly to China and pro-business. But to their surprise, Trump put together a team that was unfriendly to other countries and a foreign policy headache for all concerned. The U.S. government is blocking most investments by Chinese companies into the United States, which makes my job more challenging than before.
“I visited New York and New Jersey with my family in 2015 and was traveling to California quite a bit for work in 2016 and 2017. But the last time I was in Hanover was way back in 1998, when I was working in New York. In Shanghai I reconnected with Samson Popowicz, and we would find time to hang out on the rare occasions when we are both in the city and not traveling. Samson has been living in China since 2001, following a stint at NASA working on the International Space Station program and then a fellowship at Cornell to study Chinese. He originally planned to try his hand at something related to Russia and the Center for Internet Security but the economy and environment didn’t seem as appealing as China. In China Samson has always worked at Scandinavian companies, something about their work culture being more amenable and the time difference being more favorable.
“Only having returned to Hanover once after graduation to dig his Mazda out of a five-foot block of snow, Samson seldom travels back to the United States, and his work is mostly focused on the Asia region, especially in developing economies and developing businesses in these regions.
“There are about 30 or so active alumni currently living or working in Shanghai, and many more have come and left, so our chat group has about 300 people from many classes. I cohosted the welcome dinner to admitted students for the class of ’22 last year and look forward to doing it again this year for the ’23s.”
Take care and keep sending your news!
—Jason Casell, 10106 Balmforth Lane, Houston, TX 77096; jhcasell@gmail.com