A huge shakeup at work today as the CEO announced a new leadership reporting structure which did not include Jeff Beck, my boss and Chief Operating Officer. The General Managers of our three business units will now report to the CEO, the head of Operations will report to the CFO, I will report to the CTO, and the position of COO will no longer exist. This change came as a complete surprise to the entire team but transitions such as this often do. Jeff was the driver behind the most impressive business turn-around I have personally witnessed and is easily the best boss I have ever worked for. I am very sad that he is leaving but grateful for all he has taught me. My new boss was the former CEO of Evolution Robotics, a company which we acquired about a year ago. He is now the Chief Technical Officer and is based in Pasadena. He is an extremely bright technologist and insightful strategist with a proven business track record. We already have a good working relationship and the new reporting structure unifies the entire engineering organization in a way that I think will be highly beneficial for the company in the long run. Tomorrow I will embrace all the new possibilities but today I can only lament the departure of someone who I have truly enjoyed working for.
