It is late on a Friday at our One Manhattan West office. It is eerily empty, and also a bit melancholy for me. This is not just another Friday. It is my last day as a Partner with EY. I started here a little over nine years ago. I was already 32 years into a career that began when I was in college selling IT outsourcing and custom application development to SMBs to pay the bills. EY was the fifth major milestone in my professional journey, and there will be at least two more assuming my mind and body are willing.
Technically I am not leaving. I will continue on in role a bit longer as a non-Partner to lean in with our team to help pivot our Partner Ecosystem into the new EY “All In” strategy we just publicly announced. So why the sense of loss?
It turns out there is something special about being one of 14K partners spanning a network of over 160 countries. I would not have thought so coming in from a large corporate tech company, but the feeling of being part of something we all collectively own with shared risk and shared reward is quite extraordinary. And when those Partners, and 400K people that make up the enteprise, are consistently excellent and culturally aligned - it is magic.
It has been an honor and a privilege to have been a small part of a massive force for economic and social good that dates back one-and-half centuries. I cannot begin to thank everyone I have worked with over the years, but I do want to thank some of the people who brought me here a decade ago: Hank, Michael, Raj, Hyong, John, and the late great Clayton Baker. I also want to thank the global executive team that put their trust in me to take us on our Partners Ecosystem growth journey: Jay, Andy, Steve, Marna, Errol, and Carmine. And I want to thank my great colleagues on our Global Markets Leadership Team: Hanne, Sam, Walter, Ryan, Paul, Erika, Craig, Kenneth, Oliver, and Darren.
Finally, thank you to our incredible global #EYEcosystems team: Kelly, Kathy, Jim, Justine, Mark, John, Paul, Bruce, Johnny, Frank, Rich, Scott, Stephanie, Jens, Anindo, Brian, and so many more. It has been my great honor to work with all of you to create such great impact.
Though I will be back at it on Monday, it won’t quite be the same. I will genuinely miss belonging to the greatest partnership in the world.