When I first met him, over cheesecake at Keystone Crossing, he told me he’d be loyal to the mission, not necessarily me.  Driving home, I decided it was accidentally profound.

We hired him anyway, and since then, he proved his value a hundred-fold, inventing network configuration audits, then reinventing them, establishing documentation processes like compliance agendas and change management tools, overseeing the Triguard® revolution, etc.   He defends networks, keeping us and our Clients safe, by fighting the noise. 

And, I admit, fighting diligently against my stupid ideas.  Exuding pragmatism.  Pointing out what didn’t become the obvious until months later.   Breathing Transparency.   Even preventing a pickpocket in Prague.

        And, we have always
        realized our mission. 

His extreme Transparency and honesty, as evidenced by his initial declaration of loyalty, has earned my loyalty to him.  And everybody else who has ever encountered him, in the infotex experience.

That word, Transparency—capitalized here in his honor—has saved us countless times. Most recently, when he said: “Unfortunately, our current business case is, ‘because Dan wants to tell people we’re using machine learning.’”

I thought about one that too, the whole way home.  Of course, he was right.  And accidentally profound.  As profound as any of the other statements Sean Waugh has made, over the past twenty years. 

And now we have a clear case for machine learning.