Thanks for the Memories

This was a bittersweet week at work. Mike, who I've worked with or for during the last six years, decided to pursue another opportunity outside Oracle. A senior vice president and general manager position awaits.


I've slowly learned that co-workers' departures are part of the job. People come, people go. But Mike was (and is) different. He has that magnetism that draws people toward him. I was fortunate enough to work for Mike at Ineto way back in the Internet Boom of 2000 and was called to his office one late August afternoon during the bust of 2001. It was just three weeks before 9-11. From the ashes of Ineto rose Ineto Services and with it a new job opportunity with Mike in 2004. As Mike always said, "We got the band back together." Ineto Services gave way to Siebel. Siebel gave way to Oracle. During the chaos, one thing was constant: Mike. While other acquired companies were losing staff, we never did. I think Mike was part of that reason. I think the greatest lesson I learned from Mike is you can be at the top of your game and still have a family life. The two aren't mutually exclusive. So on a spring night at Zax, the Ineto gang said goodbye to the guy who brought us all together. In true Mike fashion, he wouldn't let us buy his own going away dinner. As Winston Churchill said, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Good luck, Mike.