Thank You

For more than 33 years now I have been blessed to be continually employed – in great organizations – and working with great people. I wanted to take a moment to thank the leaders who made a difference in my career.

In order of work history…

Pat Parker

Pat was an incredible visionary. Traveling with him as his “personal technical guy” was more than a privilege – it was always an education – like hanging out with your grandfather. Amongst so many things, Pat taught me about having passion and dedication long past when he even remotely needed to – and to embrace change.

 Paul Derov

Paul made the questionable decision of hiring me right out of college – my first “real” job. Paul was all about honesty. Paul taught me that working with people, much less leading them, was all about personal integrity and treating every person with dignity and respect. 

Frank Nichols

It was Frank who recognized that I could be more than just a technical expert. Without his “forcing me at gunpoint” to the “dark side” of business development, marketing and eventually executive leadership I would never have had the incredible adventure that my career has become. Even later when I was long gone from Parker Hannifin, Frank was always there to give me a few words of guidance.

 Mike Lipscomb

Mike taught me all about being in the “high cotton” and how to deal with the “low cotton”. His real lesson was that you don’t have to look like the smartest guy in the room – even when he usually was. I could stand to remember this lesson more often.

 Tony Smith

The king of “Bag it – Skin it – Eat it”, Tony taught me a lot about effective real-world marketing and about making sure you could swallow what you caught.

 Joe Haniford

Joe and I fought so hard with each other at times but I believe the fight was always about improving the team and the business – I know he made me better. I’ll never forget his concept of “just show that you can hit something – anything – and then we can work on refining what we’re hitting”. It was valuable to learn that its ok sometimes to start by taking the low hanging fruit. Joe also taught me the four most valuable words I know, “Help me to understand”.

 Ray Mitchell

Ray was a brilliant numbers guy who just had to always push the limits – but sometimes until you push the limits you don’t really realize where the limits are.

 Bill Christopher

Bill taught me to take a step back and take a world view. I’ve always been a details guy and Bill so often pulled me out of the trees so that I could see the forest. I always felt like a little kid at the grownups table with Bill – and I think that is a good, humbling experience that I often call to mind.

Larry Mueller

Larry was never my boss but he taught me so much in working together. It wasn’t just the huge success of the JSF program. It was a methodology of attacking problems. It was fighting tooth and nail, passionately but never letting it linger past the problem at hand. It was genuine, egoless brainstorming at its best. Larry is in my mind just about every time I stand at a white board working on a problem - I hear your voice Larry and I miss you my friend.

 Song Jianbo

Jianbo is literally one of the wealthiest men in the world but you’d never know it when you spoke with him. Unparalleled determination and commitment to his vision. Jianbo reaffirmed in practice that the only way to succeed is to go full forward, unabated towards your goal – hesitation and excessive reevaluation – are sure ways to defeat.

 I thank you all and I hope that maybe somewhere there are some of those who I have led who might one day feel the same way about me.