Anthony and his impossibly large steak
Today, we lose another valued team member, as Anthony (@anthonyslai), the 4th musketeer, rides off into the sunset.
Posts like these have become too common.
I’ve known Anthony for a decade and have worked with him nearly that entire time in one capacity or another. We worked together on the EBS R12 Intercompany and Intracompany Balancing rules engine and the Central Contractor Registry XML integration in 11.5.10, both complicated, heavy-duty enterprise projects.
During that time working together, me designing the functional stuff, him building the architecture and writing the code, it became clear that he was not only a rockstar developer, but an all-around nice guy.
Shortly after I joined Paul (@ppedrazzi) to start this team, we found ourselves looking for a rockstar, and I immediately thought of Anthony. By the end of 2007, we had convinced him to come along for the ride.
Rich (@rmanalan) and Anthony complimented each other well over the years; the hacker and the hardcore developer (Fun fact: Anthony earned a masters in EE from Stanford in his free time while working at Oracle and is nearly done with another masters, in MSE) mixed well, teaching and learning along the way. They built some awesome stuff, Mix, Connect, WebCenter extensions and a top secret project that I can’t reveal.
But now, Anthony has an offer he can’t refuse from Taleo, and he’s decided to follow Rich’s lead (or is it Paul’s lead) and head for greener pastures.
As with the others, I’m happy for him, but sad to see him go.
So, what’s next for the ‘Lab?
Noel (@noelportugal) continues to rock. In his short time on the team, he’s been extremely productive, building much of that secret project which cannot be named.
He and I will keep on building cool stuff and innovating where we can. I just hope I don’t have to write another one of these posts for a while.
Good luck Anthony. We’ll miss you.
Rich and Anthony? Ouch!
Yeah, not exactly a good month for the ‘Lab, but we’ll keep it moving.
Long live the lab!
Good luck
I’m fairly certain that steak weighs more than Anthony too.
Sucks for you and the ‘Lab. Your admiration for both Anthony and Rich (and Paul) was very evident in your posts over the past few years that I have been reading.
It’s a loss to the ‘Lab and to Oracle in general. Good people leaving is always rough, especially if they were doing innovative work.
In general, what is the average tenure of a person in a “lab” type of operation? It doesn’t sound like the place where someone would put in a 40 year career.
Who puts in a 40-year career in software anyway? Generally speaking, I think tenure will be related to the company’s commitment to the lab’s work.
Anthony was the first person to report to me when I became a manager and I worked with him on too many projects and products to mention, before joining the lab.
Rock Star developer and a great all round guy who I hope to work with again one day.