uh, what is very important with technology these days is that have the ability to relate to people and understand people. So, um, if I had to say how I got here today, what had happened a long time ago? Um, my wife was also programmer, and she was at a session for Microsoft, and they said food at the end of the session, reach India chair and she reached under a chair and she won a free copy of visual basic one point. Oh, so I picked it up and I started, um, coding with it. And because of the advantages of the u Y quick ey development, um, it would lead toe, um, writing articles about it. And it also led to writing Ah, book. So I mean, and along the way, I became product champion at different companies. I was very, really focused on one item, and now nowadays is much harder because Microsoft has dot net and it's split up into such a large universe, or to be the best at something, you really have to narrow it down. Like what am I the best at

So my I am So the way let me tell you a little bit. So I was a KPMG originally for, like, eight years on dumb. At that time, I was for working for the U. S. Firms like KPMG is Ah ah group of firms. Ah, that worked as one company. And, um, I ran the architecture group and, um, at a time that new management came in and they were outsourcing everything. So I felt that wasn't a ah good. You know why I work? I try to get the most out of people's by building a relationship with a person and and they see how I act and then they know how to act. But, ah, I didn't think that could happen if I didn't pick the people working for me. So I left and did health care for about six years. Then I came back. I had opportunity to come back for the global group, which I work with now, and I started with four people and technical product management, which what they found was that there was a hole between a product manager which is on the business side, and and with the work that has to be, um, taking care of on a technical site. So we started with four of them, But my job has evolved a lot where I just run all of delivery. So any application for any of our internal functions Tax, audit, advisory, or strategic projects? We have a secure azure, um ah, as your platform so that you could get get onto the ah, unto the cloud. Um, and know that you have a safe environment and it eliminates a lot of the Ah, because obviously our security is very tight because we've taken care of that. When we developed the platform, it makes it easier to get there. So, um, let me just see eso. My responsibilities now are really, um ah, you know, part of that was a transformation When I got there four years ago, when I came back, everything was waterfall. So I run an agile group that I built and and Trent really worked on. How do you get a company that's been working in waterfall for so long to work in Najaf? And based on that, what I find is that when we work in waterfall, um, it ah, it works in a situation way. If a project is off, goes off track, you don't find out until the end. And but with agile, you find out every three weeks you have the opportunity to pull it, pull it back in, um, about my work hours because I work for a global, um, you know, global Organization. I would say that I I would say that there's a good work life balance, but sometimes there's a call at 6 a.m. Because it might be a someone in India or Japan or something else. And we have to always be flexible. So a lot of my agile team, you know, they when they're working on stand ups, since you want them to typically be the beginning of the day, it obviously could could be, ah, different. Now. When I first came back, they told me on the travel part that I would've they needed me to go to India one once a year and go to Europe a six times a year. So I've been back four times. I did get to go to India for the first time. I think two or three years ago, and the company we work with is at a Coach E. So I had a very good time there. And, um, you know, I really learned about how this one company has been partnering with KPMG for 15 years on how orange and how much they learn the business. Um, now everybody works from home, and I think that what has happened in the last three months is, um, we're just is productive or maybe more productive. So I I don't know what the future holds, but ah, I could see, has taken a lot less office space.

challenges are working to get different groups to work together. So, um, I think that a lot of it is is flexibility and and being understanding of the other person's position and and also like putting yourself in that position. So I I work a lot with my, you know, Now make. My group is maybe 50 people, and I work a lot with them on how toe, um let go of what's not important and focus on what's what you really want. Like if you're in a negotiation over what you know, let's say, for instance, what a score Mestre does of our project manager cause to different groups that I'm working on right now. If you just say I want it this way and I want everything, then you're gonna alienate the PM's and the PM's of the ones that see the project's first so they can, you know, eliminate your ah, you know, they can make it so you don't have you don't get a lot of scar master opportunity. So I think that, um, you know, that's, um that's a challenge, and it's always a challenge, you know, I've worked in when I left for six years, I worked in a lot of startups and a lot of companies that acted like start ups or transformation. So, um, the differences and I had to, like, change the way I work from corporate into that situation. In corporate you have toe. I still get a lot things done, but they're done in increments like ah, and in ah, in the situation where the startup or transformation I could grab three people in the room whiteboard. What we want to do say you do this, you do that you that will meet in three weeks and it gets done here requires meetings and a lot of other things, you know?