My 4 years on Wall St. with MSCI in New York City

Four years ago, a life-changing decision happened for my whole family. How did it go, what did I learn, how do I feel, would I ever do this again? You will find out as you read this post.

I left a high profile, high cushion role as the CVP of Microsoft Teams to accept the role of CTO at MSCI. We moved from Seattle after almost 20 years there, to New York City. I shifted from the west coast Technology world to the east coast Wall Street culture. I believed that you must leave your comfort zone to force new learning and accelerate personal as well as professional growth.

It was a bold, risky move. It was emotional leaving so many friends and a great network we developed for all of us. Many of our friends wondered what I was thinking. My younger son was moving to 1st grade, older one moving to high school, and wife had to change teams to accommodate the transition. We had to adapt to a new place, new culture, and new people. It all started with an unexpected blow to my face, getting Bell’s Palsy which paralyzed my left face just as I began the new job. There was absolutely nothing easy about the transition.

Before you try to transform a company or an industry, you must transform yourself first. The move transformed and grew each of us in ways that was not possible when you are living in a comfort zone. You evolve your level of thinking due to external forces, new companies, new industry, new city, and new people around you. You learn to develop new friendships, new hobbies, and new routines. You learn to lead without expertise in a domain you just joined. You learn a new industry (Investments in my case). You meet extraordinary personalities in a place like New York City. Most importantly, you learn – to learn again. This is something humans forget to do when they are set in ways for years. It is not that I was not learning before the move, but the number of vectors that stretched me during these four years meant that I had to continuously learn to survive, and eventually thrive in the new world.

I have been blessed with a phenomenal team, and great leaders at MSCI. We have driven massive changes in culture, the Technology and Data stack, and how we think about the role of Technology at the firm as well as in the industry. The speed of innovation has drastically increased since 2018 from our 2500-person dedicated team in Technology and Data. The organization has gone from playing defense, to playing offense, as well as defense. We launched the ISaaS strategy with a series of new services. Clients have seen immense value delivered through this Technology transformation at MSCI. We are going to continue to punch above our weight class.

I wanted to memorialize our journey with a post. Our older one is going to college soon, my wife is enjoying her role at Amazon, and the younger one has become a Minecraft youtuber, go figure.

On a side note, I ran 4 full Marathons and 2800 miles (about the width of the United States) in these 4 years and cofounded Team Osprey, the coolest running group in New York City. I have even invented our Team’s legendary Osprey wingspan because what is the point of running if you do not cross the finish line in style, right? New York City has been absolutely amazing, exciting place to be, full of energy and something new to explore every day.

How do I feel after these eventful four years? Satisfied, excited, thrilled, sometimes exhausted, and incredibly happy. Most weeks I felt dissatisfied with my own results, and yet in the end I feel very accomplished for our team, my family and for myself. Today I feel gratitude for my family, friends, and my team.

Until we meet again, keep running, life is short, make the most of it, miles to go before we sleep. Let me know what your thoughts are about making transitions in life. I would love to listen and learn from your experiences.