Spring 11 MASTER.indd - Thunderbird Magazine

class notes
recently traveled 6,000 miles in
a 1985 Chevette with his wife,
Magda, before returning home
to Costa Rica. Huelat also enjoys
painting. … J.H. (Ham) Dethero
’58 and his wife, Charlotte,
live in Lafayette, California. They
have been married 51 years
and met in Phoenix, Arizona,
during Dethero’s fi rst year at
Thunderbird. Dethero is largely
retired, but still fi nds time for a
state program called Operation
Welcome Home, which focuses
on assisting veterans returning
to California from service in Iraq,
Afghanistan and other locations.
… Frederick Andresen ’58
is writing a weekly column for
the top Russian news bureau.
Andresen also was invited to El
Paso, Texas, for a book signing
on his latest book, “Dos Gringos,”
inspired by Andresen’s immigrant
Norwegian father’s escapades in
the Mexican Revolution. … Bill
Maratos ’58 is still involved with
the export of honey to Japan and
the export of microwave popcorn
to Greece. He remains active with
the Military Offi cers Association
of Green Valley, Arizona. …
Richard Gore ’59 is a semiretired
equity investor. He retired
from Saati Americas as chairman
in 2006 and now lives in White
Plains, New York. He spends
summers at Bayport, New York,
on Long Island’s Great South Bay
and enjoys playing golf, jogging,
reading and cooking with his
wife, Donna. … Patrick Mattison
’59 is president of Belrock
Printing. He focuses on selling
and development of any printed
product from concept to delivery.
… Wally Johnson ’59 lives in
Centennial, Colorado, with Gloria,
his wife of 51 years. He is retired
from turf sales. … Bart Hartzell
’59 worked three years for Continental
Can in Ohio and New York,
and as technical manager at their
subsidiary in Medellin, Colombia.
He later returned to Boeing,
where he was employed for more
than 28 years and assigned to
Jerry Kuo ’02, right, and his brother, Andy, joined the Groupon family in December 2010.
Taiwanese startup attracts U.S. buyer
T-bird entrepreneur
Suchi “Jerry”
Kuo ’02 made
headlines around
the world when his Taiwanbased
social media and
online shopping company,
Atlaspost, merged with
U.S.-based Groupon in a
deal announced Dec. 1,
2010.
Groupon.com features
daily deals on a variety of
things to do, eat, see and
buy in more than 300
markets using the power of
group buying. The social
networking strategy helps
online consumers make
purchases together to
qualify for group discounts.
Many industry insiders
view Groupon as the next
Web 2.0 star. “We sold
this company to Groupon
because it will help us
provide better service to our
merchants and customers,”
Kuo said.
Atlaspost, which started
as a family enterprise in
2007, quickly developed
into Taiwan’s leading group
buying site, with more than
1.5 million users. Although
the site was the first of its
kind in Taiwan, Kuo said
companies such as Groupon
already had found
success with the model in
other markets.
“When I founded this
company, Web 2.0 was
pretty popular all over
the world,” he said. “So I
thought it might be a good
opportunity for me to create
my own business.”
Kuo’s brother, Andy, quit
his California job at Yahoo
and returned to Taiwan to
collaborate on the project.
“When we started, blog
service providers were
popular in Taiwan, and
location-based services were
getting hotter and hotter,”
Kuo said. “Our idea was to
combine these two services
to have people writing
blogs on the map.”
Kuo has a background in
business, and his brother
has a background in
computer science. So they
merged their strengths and
developed Atlaspost.
Kuo credits Thunderbird
with teaching him the critical
skills he needed to build
a powerful team of employees.
“Thunderbird was the
most valuable period of my
life,” he said. “I met a lot of
good friends there, which
helped me develop a better
understanding of cultural
differences.”
SUBMITTED PHOTO
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