Speaker: Brian Kestenbaum
Please tell us your name and how you know Crit, and share what impact he has had on your career or how you have impacted his.
Brian Kestenbaum: Hire. It's Brian. Hope you're well. Um, I just wanted to share two quick stories, uh, about things that I remember and think about when I think of you and maybe you were, are, are not aware of them. But one is early in my career and even recently, but certainly early in my career, I remember sitting with you when you would digest a problem or an issue. And I was, I always admired how you took time to pause and think about what words came out of your mouth before they came out. And I always admired that. And I, I, to this day I'm probably the opposite. I speak quickly and I don't like there to be dead air. And so I try to remember to pause and take a breath before I speak, which again, I'm not very good at, but I'm trying to do it right now and when I do it and when I think about it, um, I always think of you and, and how impressed I always am that you would and always was that you would, I'd sit in your office and I would present an issue to you that we were dealing with and you would stop and you would digest and there would be silence and I would be nervous that there was silence, but you thought through the issue and then, and then you, uh, you came to, you know, an intelligent conclusion or intelligent solution. I also, um, I used to tell other people that were working with you. Um, you know, certainly people working for me that would be working with you or, or anybody that asked that when you would say, I think maybe, or is there a chance that usually meant that you were correct? Um, if you thought that maybe something was a certain way or maybe you had heard something about a law, you almost certainly had, um, and you were invariably, right. So, um, I, I don't know if you're aware of that but, um, but anyway, I, I've always admired it and, and thought that the other thing I wanted to mention completely unrelated is that I've always admired, um, how you use humor to, um, to lighten the mood to sort of, um, give a little change of pace when it's been a long meeting and I always appreciate it, um, because I appreciate the humor, but also I, you know, I admire it from a leadership standpoint that I think it's just a great, you know, quality that you have to be able to inject some humor into what can sometimes be dry topics or dull meetings and I, I try to emulate that when I can. Um, because I just, I think it's a wonderful technique. I have to, again, remember to talk slower here. But anyway, um for example, use humor when we were at, um, we were at an off site meeting and uh Rita was sharing how hr tries to do things to make people more involved and that people such as myself enjoy when she brings cupcakes to the office. And from there, um, your favorite nickname for me was born. And so, uh, um, and it made the entire off site, you know, management group laugh and have fun and, um, just kind of broke the stagnancy of the meeting. So, um, I've always, I've always admired that small grip. So anyway, I'm gonna really miss working with you and, um, I hope you keep in touch. Um, and then I continue to hear about you and your family, um, who I, you know, adore, um, very much and I wish you the best of luck in retirement. And again, I hope, I hope we keep in touch and, and thank you, um, for being a great leader, boss friend. Uh Thanks. Correct.
