Where He Is Now: Fifteen Years Later

Me with friends at my 15-year SOM reunion, May 2026.

Today is Commencement Day for the Yale School of Management's Class of 2026, making it 15 years since I graduated from their MBA program, and one year since last I posted an annual update.

Me at Valley of Fire State Park
in Nevada, October 2025.

In my last post, I was ending a consulting contractor gig at City National Bank and had accepted an offer to join Genpact as a Director in their People Advisory Services group. That indeed happened, and I'm approaching my first anniversary there, having just finished my second project. My first project was as the change management lead for a "talent transfer," also known as a "rebadge," which is when a client of Genpact moves their people and the work to us. My second project was a "talent transition," which is when a client moves the work, not their people, to us. In both cases, the point of change management is to minimize disruption, resistance and confusion. We do this by communicating, assessing readiness (i.e., sending and analyzing surveys), conducting workshops about new ways of working, and developing and delivering cultural trainings. So it is similar, in process, to the type of management consulting I have done before, but different in topic. It's a nice mix of applying prior experience and learning something new.

Me with two of three members
of my first-year study group. 

Two weeks ago, I attended my 15-year SOM class reunion in New Haven. Because our 10-year was thwarted by Covid, this was the first time many of us had seen one another in 10 or 15 years. For some, this was their first time seeing the fancy "new" campus that opened a few years after we graduated. Roughly 80, by my guess, of my classmates attended, about a third of our class. The weekend started with a reception Friday night, followed by a full day Saturday that kicked off with what I think is everyone's favorite part of the weekend, a session where each of your classmates gets a minute or two to catch everyone up on what they've been up to. My takeaways: Most people seemed happy, most had a couple kids, a few had gone through serious health issues, and, professionally, there were fewer people than you might expect with "traditional" MBA-type jobs. By that I mean, I didn't hear a lot of updates in the vein of "I'm now a Senior Vice President at Goldman Sachs" or "I'm a partner at McKinsey." Rather, most people (not all, of course) seemed to be entrepreneurs, directors of small nonprofits, independent consultants, executive coaches, investors, or startup dabblers. Common fields were healthcare, education and the environment. This all aligns with SOM's mission to "educate leaders for business and society." And it gets someone like me asking himself, Am I doing what I'm really passionate about? Am I making an impact? What does "success" mean for me? After that session, there were choices of lectures from current professors; I went to one on AI and one on organizational change. And Saturday ended with a class dinner. Overall, it was a well-executed and, for me at least, socially exhausting weekend. It's been years since I was in that type of environment, so it was an adjustment from working at home in my shorts. 

Alanis at Caesars Palace.

Aside from the reunion, my only other non-work trip outside Florida these past 12 months was to Las Vegas last October, primarily to see Alanis Morissette in concert. Atypically of frugal me, I treated myself to the VIP package with excellent seats. She was fantastic. I also went on a day-long guided tour of Valley of Fire State Park (which I recommend) and saw "The Wizard of Oz" at Sphere, a "4D" viewing experience where you're fully surrounded by an AI-enhanced screening of the film as you sit in haptic seats and experience environmental effects like wind. And of course I had some delicious meals and did a tiny amount of gambling, to no avail. This was my first time taking a vacation alone. While it was fun to be able to do whatever I wanted whenever I felt like it, if I were to do another solo trip, I would go somewhere more relaxing and less crowded than Las Vegas, like a cabin in nature or a spa retreat. But I'm glad I went.

Daniel during one of our day trips
to Four Mile Cove Ecological
Preserve in Cape Coral.

My boyfriend of almost two years, Daniel, and I just closed on a condo this month, right around the corner from the apartment I've been living in since I moved to Fort Myers. As a lifelong renter, this is a major and long overdue grown-up step! The new place is about the same size as my current unit but nicer and with more character, and it's across the street from a 279-acre public park with miles of walking and biking trails along freshwater lakes. And, oddly, it's not more expensive than what I've been paying (i.e., burning) in rent. This is a buyer's market, I'm told. For fun outside of work, I'm still in a bowling league, still play tennis once or twice a week, and have dinner every Sunday with my mom, who recently turned 83. I took a break this spring from choir but plan to rejoin this fall for the Christmas concert. Daniel, whom I met in choir, is still an active member, though, so I look forward to enjoying the spring concert as an audience member in a couple weeks.

My niece and her husband.

My niece graduated from college a year ago (cum laude with a B.S. in aerospace engineering, mind you!), got married last summer and lives in Colorado. My younger nephew is finishing his sophomore year at the University of Pennsylvania and is (to my surprise) getting involved in journalism on campus, although that's not his long-term career aspiration at the moment. And his parents and brother are settled into their Orlando home full-time. As I've mentioned, Florida is a great place to live if you want out-of-town friends to visit. In the past 12 months, I've had guests from all phases of life. As my father used to say, Florida is where it's at! When I was in the Northeast for my reunion, I briefly passed through New York City on my way back, grabbing lunch at the Yale Club across the street from Grand Central to kill time before heading to LaGuardia. It didn't feel like three years had passed, for sure. If money is no object someday, depending on how the various puzzle pieces of life do or don't fall into place, I can see a world where I either live there again or spend more time there. But as soon as I stepped outside back here in Florida I was immediately glad to be "home," too.  

For the world's most stunning
sunsets, visit a Florida grocery
store parking lot in January.

As I write this in May 2026, it would be inauthentic of me to post a typical life-and-career update without acknowledging that I, like many, am shaken by recent news events, revelations and fears pertaining to AI, the Epstein files, global conflict, economic instability and so on. I find myself questioning, in a way I wouldn't have years ago, whether doing well in school, going to a good college, working 40 hours/week, getting an MBA, then working even harder has been an exercise in free will by a man blessed to be born in a wonderful country during a privileged era of history ... or the manipulated behavior of a man carefully conditioned to work, consume and comply for the benefit of demonic elites. Or both! But I know many people are feeling this way -- disillusioned, suspicious, tired, angry. Hitting middle age during a historic global shift in collective consciousness is a doozy. 

See you next year.