Late in the spring of 2018, two partners with the long-standing local CPA firm in which I had been employed for nearly twenty years invited me into an office and asked me to close the door. My instinctual reaction came as no surprise to them. “Um, okay… I… guess …”

One of the greatest assets of our technology community are the activators—people who seek to be change agents for innovation, progress and solutions. This spirit of action has built companies, disrupted markets, created new technologies, and inspired meaningful relationships.

To say that we are going through an interesting time is an extraordinary understatement. COVID-19 has changed our world in ways that none of us could have imagined even three months ago. We’ve now been witness to the devastation that can be caused by a global pandemic.

I was born in South Africa in 1991 — three months after Apartheid laws were officially abolished. In the years preceding the end of Apartheid, the country was on the brink of civil war. Violence and protests were frequent and there was even a point where negotiations were called off

Mere months ago, Utah and the job market at large was neck-deep in talent wars. Unemployment was less than 3% state-wide and even lower for the tech industry. In a report released by the Kem Garner Institute in February of this year, Utah was poised for an excellent 2020 with sustained growth

A decade ago, if someone had asked me if I imagined myself ending up at a grocery retailer for a majority of my marketing career, I would have looked at them sideways. It’s not that I have anything against groceries—or brick and mortar for that matter. In fact, I love food.

“Have you thought about recruiting out of Utah?” a California venture capitalist asked me in my Washington DC office. “You’d be surprised by the talent coming out of that place.” This investor had no idea that I was from Utah.

I absolutely love this quote. We are here to make a difference in the world. Back in 1982 my father had a dream of sucking ash, hot embers, and charcoal, from a fireplace into a vacuum. People thought he was crazy and said it couldn’t be done. Three years later he introduced the first vacuum