Thankful for the past & the opportunities that lay ahead

There is no time f the year more apt to bid farewell to dunnhumby than Thanksgiving, because there is no better way to describe how I feel after 12 marvelous years than Thankful!

• Thankful for the culture & values that have shaped and accompanied me over these 12 years, Passion, Curiosity, Collaboration and Courage are now part of my DNA.
• Thankful for the experiences living and working across three continents, learning new cultures, meeting people from all walks of life and working with some of the world’s most innovative Retailers and CPGs.
• Thankful for the learning. 12 years is quite an education and dunnuhumby is a magnificent institution to learn at. In particular, from leaders like Lawrence Josey my first and most influential boss, to Marc Fischli my last and most important mentor, and Nick Ross Gower and Dion Roberts that flipped between mentorship and peerage with the greatest of ease. They believed in me, gave me the space and opportunities to spread my wings without fear of failure, empowering me to be my best.
• Thankful for Customer 1st. Who would have thought this mantra would get me to spring out of bed every day and become something I would take with me throughout my career? It continues to bring out the best in my work with Retailers and CPGs alike, making it not only more impactful but more meaningful. 
• Thankful for the people around me. For putting up with me, for challenging me, inspiring me with what they achieved and what they enabled me to achieve. For allowing me to have hundreds of best friends at work, indulging my endless questions and discussions, (did I mention putting up with me?), and always being there for me when I needed it for work or personal things, no questions asked.

Only a fool would leave a place where he is so happy, but, if there is one thing everyone at dunnhumby has taught me is to dream big and trust my instincts.

Which is exactly why I decided to move to Google Cloud to lead the Retail and Consumer business in the US. Where else could I dream bigger?

I have been privileged to see the impact Google Cloud can have on businesses, as its adoption lay at the foundation of the technical transformation kicked off at dunnhumby four years ago. The adoption of Google Cloud, and in particular Kubernetes, were catalysts for an open source revolution that would transform the speed, efficiency and quality of the Advanced Analytics, AI and ML of one of the world's premier data science practitioners.

Experiencing what Google Cloud did for dunnhumby whilst working closely with Retailers and CPGs on their own data-driven, digital transformations, I knew that Google was the best place to enable digital transformations at scale. Why Google? Because of a commitment to open source, creating a "lock-in free" ecosystem; leadership and constant innovation in AI and ML and unique ability, through Anthos, to decouple where Customers build applications from where they run them. Simply put, Google is leading the way in unlocking the true potential of digital transformation whilst investing to simplify them by enabling Customers to leverage one technology that runs everywhere.

So, having spent the last 12 years helping Retailers & CPGs put their Customers and Consumers First by leveraging dunnhumby's Customer 1st Purpose, Analytics, AI and ML to set strategy, make better decisions and drive digital transformation, I am now excited to enable them do it for themselves through Google Cloud.