12 Minutes

It was a chilly early morning in Tokyo as I came downstairs from my hotel room to line up at the taxi stand of the New Otani Hotel and head to the office. I had assumed my corporate functions at Oracle Corporation 2 weeks earlier in Singapore and this was my first business trip with the company to meet my Japan team and other local colleagues. As I stood there trying to get the bellman understand where I was heading to, so that he can translate it to the cab driver in Japanese, a gentleman standing behind me in the line heard the keywords ‘Oracle Office’, waved a Japanese-printed sheet of paper he was already holding in his hand to the bellman and offered me a ride as he was "heading there too" -which I gladly accepted. It was early November 2008 and on the backseat of a Tokyo taxi cab, Derek Williams was first to shake my hand and introduce himself. He was the President of Oracle Japan and EVP, reporting straight up to Larry Ellison. He also was the very first Oracle employee in Asia Pacific - a region he subsequently built from scratch over the 28 years that followed.

The ride to the office took exactly 12 minutes and as we arrived, Derek had the exact fare of ￥1290 in cash ready to hand over to the cab driver! I’m very grateful I have met Derek during my first month at Oracle as it’s through his mentorship and leadership that my team and I were set on the right path for what became an amazing journey of our Healthcare business in Japan.

Despite his close-to-God status in the corporation, my 7 years working with him were a truly humbling experience. I was carrying the scars of previous experiences where the higher you pitch your strategy in the organization, the more likely you are confronted with 'high level executives' whose salary depended on them not understanding what you're talking about. My interactions with Derek had me profoundly reconsider that rule: He made it his own mission to take our pitch to Larry himself and make Healthcare become a strategic investment pillar for Oracle Japan - he believed in us all the way and displayed relentless engagement and support for us to grow. Derek respected every single employee in the company by keeping his door always open to anyone, by being sharp on time for every single meeting I’ve had with him and by listening while taking notes, far more than he talked. These traits represent Leaders' DNA and those who worked in big corporations know the scarcity of that genome at that hierarchical level.... Moreover, to every single meeting -and there were quite a few in those 7 years, Derek came prepared and stayed focused throughout. He perfectly knew the context, the desired outcomes of the meeting beforehand and decisions were made right there. His levels of time management, incisive thinking and sharp decision-making were mind-boggling. 

I recall one of my 1:1's with him where I expressed my frustration about the slowness of the [Japan] organization in getting things going. He looked at me from above his spectacles’ frame and said: “Be patient Mehdi, this is Japan - we need to follow the process", to which I replied “my dad always told me only dead fish go with the flow - and God knows there’s a lot of sashimi in Japan!”. I’ve never seen Derek cracking up on a joke like he then did. As we both laughed, he knew I was only expressing my frustration while fully respecting the people around us and their culture.

My close friends know that my restless character -let's put it this way, is not very compatible with the way big corporations do business. In retrospect, I can safely say that Derek was one of the top reasons I had stayed at Oracle this long and thanks to him and other bright stars, this was by far the most inspiring journey of my corporate life.

When I left Oracle in 2015, I sent a note to a few friends in September to keep them abreast of my new Healthcare venture. Derek was one of the first to reply with this: "Mehdi, good to hear from you and glad things are working out. Please let me know if I can help."- Coming from someone who meant every single word he said, that brief reply meant the world to me. Unfortunately though, this was the last time Derek and I corresponded.

Derek left us too early and suddenly in July this year, but his spirit will be with us forever.

R.I.P.

Mehdi Khaled

Vice President Healthcare & Life Sciences - Asia Pacific & Japan | Global Chief Medical Officer  | Oracle Corporation (2008-2015)