I am not sure where to start so I will just write what comes to mind and hope it makes sense.

For my entire professional career, I have been lucky enough to work for some really awesome companies like Sony, HP, Yahoo! and Intel.  I don’t think I am anything special but I have always found myself to be at the right place at the right time; and of course, living in the heart of Silicon Valley doesn’t hurt either. And, while I have learned a lot from my experiences at these companies it really is time for change.

Intel has really been a special place for me. I have grown personally and professionally during my time there and have built some really awesome relationships. The entire web marketing team (Jessica, Melissa, Eva, Denise, Matt, Mike, Kim, Suzanne, Annie, Lisa, Doug, Carolina and Bob) has been instrumental in my growth and development. Thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart! It’s also been a pleasure working with the Razorfish team (you know who you are); you guys rock too!

Outside of my immediate team, there are also a few people that I need to acknowledge that have been nothing but awesome during my time at Intel – Sue, Cristina, Stacy, Kelly O, Holly, David L, Mark P, Jaime S, Steve B, Christina L, Victor, Brent, John C, Rama, Uday, Ken K, Kiesha, DAD, Sam, Leslie, Cyndi B, Sejal, Eric, Veneski, Alex, Tony, Alan F, Todd C, Josh and the IT guy down on the first floor of RNB. If I forgot to mention you, I am really sorry.

I also want to thank a few people outside of Intel who are mentors and friends; and who have counseled me on this decision to make a change. A big thank you to Shel Israel, Jennifer Leggio, Jennifer Shanks, Becky Carroll, David Veneski (Intel), Alexis Stack, Ted Murphy, Sumaya Kazi, Reem Abeidoh and of course my lovely wife, Kathy for all of her support.

I have come to realize that relationships matter in social media. I often write about this concept and mention it a bit when speaking at events; but this is so true and it’s because of this that I will be working with Edelman.  A few months ago, I was invited to speak on a panel by my good friend Tony Welch “Frosty” who works for HP. The other panelists included my close pal Angela LoSasso, Richard Brewer-Hay from eBay & Steve Rubel from Edelman. After the panel, we had dinner and talked about a variety of topics.

The next morning, I received an email from Steve introducing me to Rick Murray who is the President of Edelman Digital. From there, I have interviewed with multiple team members on the Edelman team. They all rock! In fact, I had dinner with the San Francisco team last night and the energy was electrifying.

I am joining Edelman Digital as a Vice President and I am excited to be working closely with Steve Rubel, Rick Murray and the awesome team in SF.  I am also proud to say that Bruce Eric Anderson (currently at Dell) will also be joining me at Edelman as a Vice President.  Bruce Eric and I had the chance to work together on Dell’s Digital Nomads where I contributed some blog posts on consumer mobility — we’ll be working on the same team at Edelman Digital.

I am confident that Bruce and I can bring the experience we have gained at Intel and Dell to Edelman clients in an effort to help them navigate through the social web from “behind the firewall”.