Maria Renz

As a Project Manager at Hallmark, Maria Renz was puzzled by a seemingly overconfident Owen summer intern. “I was a bit taken aback … the other two interns contact-ed me when they came to town. They’d say, ‘Oh yeah, Tom Barr is here,’ and I’d think, ‘Who the heck is Tom Barr?’”

Renz tracked Barr down, and they soon became friends. After graduation Tom joined GlaxoSmithKline in Pittsburgh. Renz was then with Kraft Foods in New York City, where GlaxoSmithKline’s ad agency is located. They began dating, even after Renz moved to Seattle to work for Amazon. Tom began taking Friday night flights from Pittsburgh to Seattle and then red-eyes home on Sunday.

“After a year we thought, ‘This is crazy. We have to figure out how to make this work,’” Renz says.

Before they even began exploring opportunities, a headhunter contacted Tom about coming to work for Starbucks Coffee Co. Tom is now the Vice President of North American Marketing for the coffee retailer, while Renz is a Vice President with Endless.com, Amazon’s shoe and handbag Web site.

“Whenever I need business advice or want to talk to my best friend, I turn to Tom. We have a great network of friends through Owen,” she says.

Tom serves on the Owen Alumni Board, and the couple participated in last winter’s Marketing Camp. They also have two children—prospective students for the Owen classes of 2031 and 2032, no doubt.