Why I work at QNX - Celebrating 20 Years!

Its rare than I’m at a loss for words but last night really caught me off guard. To have representatives from my QNX family and my real family celebrating my 20 years was both an honour and a pleasure.

Why have I stayed so long at QNX? I get asked this all the time. I’ll come back to it. I’ll say a few thank you’s first.

To start with, I know it’s a shock for some of you, but I do have a life outside of QNX :-) I am who I am because of my family. Everything I learned about hard work, integrity, loyalty, respect and love, I learned from my mom and dad. I’m so glad they were there to celebrate with me and they come first in my “things I wish I said in my speech” list. A former boss, Al O’C, once complemented me and when I thanked him, he pointed out that I actually had nothing to do with it, that I was just fortunate to have the benefit of both good genes and great parenting. I’m also lucky enough to have two sisters who happen to be two of my closest friends. My sisters serve as constant inspiration for me, by always challenging traditional assumptions and ideas, they remind me to THINK. My family taught me to be brave, to say what I think, and to stand up for what I believe in. Thank you.

I think of my QNX family in groups: they are (1) the originals, (2) the first alliances team, (3) the marketing team today (4) the founders and (5) the external network of people who I’ve been working with for most of my career at QNX.

I’ve been feeling nostalgic this year, I think because I knew it was my 20th but also because we lost one of the “originals” earlier this year. Rob died after a long battle with some horrible debilitating disease, I think it was Parkinsons. At his memorial, I had a chance to catch up with a lot of old QNX friends and it struck me that somehow life gets in the way of life. How do we lose touch with people we care about? These people helped Dan and Gord build this fabulous company and they helped me become the business person I am today. But mostly, we had a lot of fun. Here I have to mention Grant and Marylou. Marylou was my first boss at QNX and she was simultaneously one of the smartest people I know and the craziest. I’ve yet to meet anyone like her. And to this day, Grant is still one of my favourite people in the universe.

Then there are the folks who worked with me to build the original strategic alliances and segment marketing functions within the company. It strikes me now that I can’t pick a "best" time at QNX, because they are all the best. This team included some of the funniest people on the planet (Shelley, Pierre, and Dave, their straight man) who kept the rest of us (me, Kimm, Jamie, and Andrew) rolling in the aisles – or denial aisle as they fondly named it.

Now, the alliances team is part of an even bigger team, the marketing group. And they’re the best too! This group has taught me many things, particularly around fashion, design, cooking, and pop culture. Darrin has taught me to be stylish, Romain shares his recipes, and Trisha shows me how to be nice. (Don’t underestimate this quality or the significance of this compliment). Dave C mentors me every single day, he leads by example: (1) patience, (2) focus, and (3) kindness. And he taught me that there are only ever 3 things so I won’t say more, but I could.

The founders, Dan and Gord, taught me that the only thing that really matters is that you do something that makes you happy. They had many opportunities over the years to sell out, but they didn’t. They were having way too much fun doing what they were doing. They created a company based on family values and an environment where people could grow and learn as they went along. Sometimes I look back and I think about how naive and inexperienced we all were, a real case of “you don’t know what you don’t know” and because we didn’t know, we would try. As Dan has said, there are a lot of things we might not have tried had we known, yet they all worked out in the end. I think one of the keys to their success has been hiring really great people. Here I recognize Mike and Jenn, two of the industry’s best kept secrets. They work in the background, taking care of all the small details (like money and the law), and certainly the company would not be where it is today without them.

I have also had the pleasure of working with some incredible people outside of the company. I’ve made some really good friends over the years as well as some very strong professional relationships. I am honoured that many of them took time to recognize me. Actually most of the time, I’m honoured that they return my calls :-)

So why do I stay?

By now, I think the answer is pretty obvious. I work with a bunch of truly amazing people, doing this incredibly fun job where I get to learn something new EVERY SINGLE DAY. (Yesterday it was Open VG to GLes conversion libraries) :-)

In other words, I’m doing something that makes me very happy and I get to do it with my husband. I think I’m pretty darn lucky. There are lots of people that I haven't mentioned by name, but you're all the BEST! Thank you, thank you, thank you. And a final special thank you to Dave, Trish and Darrin for organizing the party.