C-Suite Visit

Yesterday part of our Kyndryl c-suite paid a visit to Brno.  This never happened when we were part of IBM.  It started off with a session in an auditorium at a local university where we got to hear from our CEO, CFO, and Chief Transformation Officer.  They were joined by our local site leader.

Martin Schroeter is our CEO so he leads the world's largest IT infrastructure services firm.  Prior to taking the reins at Kyndryl, he was the Senior Vice President of IBM Global Markets.

Nelly Akoth is our new Chief Transformation Officer, who previously was a senior partner in IBM's Global Business Services unit where she was the worldwide leader for the accounting and finance practice.  She used to be the CFO for IBM Sub-Saharan Africa.  I've had the opportunity to meet her before and she's great.

David Wyshner is our new Chief Financial Officer.  He actually didn't come from IBM but from XPO Logistics where he led the global finance organisation.

Zoltán Zerényi is the Director of Client Innovation Centre, EMEA, and he is our local site leader.

It was inspiring getting to listen to our leaders.  Later, Maida and I had the opportunity meet with our CEO.  Pretty cool!

Geetha's Farewell Lunch

Today was Geetha's farewell lunch.  I've more or less worked with Geetha the whole time that I've been here in Czechland.  She worked in India with my team located in Brno.  She's always been a rock star so several years ago I sorted out a transfer for her to Brno.  Then a few years later, we worked together in a different team before I left to do something else.

But after more than five years in Brno she's ready to go back home.  That's one of the things about expats.  For the most part they come and then one day go back to their home country or head to the next adventure.

When I first moved here I thought that I'd be here for 2, maybe 3 years, and then either head back to the USA or perhaps end up in another country.  Yet, even after almost 13 years, I don't have any plans to leave Brno.

Safe travels back to Bangalore Geetha!  We'll miss you!!

First Kyndryl Business Trip

I was in Germany this past week on my first business trip with Kyndryl.

When I was with IBM in Atlanta, I usually travelled to meet with clients in California, Virginia, and Ohio.  While here in Czechland, I've been lucky enough to visit England, Ireland, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Netherlands, India, Poland and Slovakia.  I honestly can't even count how many times I've been to Bratislava and Wrocław.

This week I was in Frankfurt to meet with a client and while there we signed a new mega five-year deal.  It was a great visit but it was a lot of work and now I get to sleep in my own bed.

IGA BBQ Reunion

Today one of my old teams got together for a BBQ picnic at Lužánky Park.  It was a very close team and even though some people have moved on to other teams and even moved on to other companies we still manage to get together pretty regularly.  Although Covid put a halt to that for a while.

We had about 20 people show up, with Jūlija even coming in from Prague to join us.

I do miss this cast of characters.  By far the best team that I ever had the pleasure of working with.  Even if I had to deal with all of the pranks.

When the date was first proposed I immediately remembered that today was the twentieth anniversary of 9/11.  That's one of those events that happens and you will forever remember what you were doing when it happened.  I still can't believe that it was 20 years ago.  I remember it like it was just yesterday.

Kyndryl

In August, it was my 18th year with IBM and as of today I now work for Kyndryl.  IBM has spun off the infrastructure services business which included the division I worked for which was IBM Global Technology Services.

Kyndryl is an information technology services provider that designs, builds, manages and develops large-scale information systems worldwide.   

I never actually applied to work at IBM.  I worked for Equifax which is one of the three US credit bureaus and I was outsourced to IBM.  Basically I was told one day that I was moving to IBM and I got rebadged.  I have to say that overall it worked out all right and it eventually led me to my life here in Czechland.  So I'm excited to see what happens with Kyndryl.  We're pretty much the world's largest start-up.

Here's a short video I found out on YouTube.

©Kyndryl

One question that people keep asking is what does Kyndryl mean?  It's basically a mix of "kinship" and "tendril" which symbolises new growth and working together.

The only drawback to the name is that in Czech it sounds like Kinedryl which, in Czechland and Slovakia, is a popular medicine for motion sickness.

18 Years

Wow!  It's hard to believe but today is 18 years with IBM.  18 years!  And 2/3rds of it has been over here in Euroland.

The division of IBM that I work for will soon split away and become Kyndryl.

But still, it's incredible to think that I've been with "Big Blue" for so long.  Where does the time go?

In the Lithuanian News

Yesterday morning I received a message from a Lithuanian friend in Prague that a photo of me was in the Lithuanian news.  What!?!?  I haven't been to Lithuania in a while so I had no idea what this was about.  Perhaps it's another one of these "I'm everywhere" or "I'm still everywhere"things.

One of the Lithuanians at work was featured on a website about her life and how she ended up in Brno. By the way, this is the same chica who made me give the Mozaiko presentation a few weeks ago.

One of the photos used is of us on the IBM float during the 2019 Prague Pride. 

The article is pretty interesting.  Obviously it is entirely in Lithuanian but Google Translate will give you the jist.  Congratulations Rimgailė on your write up!

Mozaiko Presentation

A couple of months after I first moved to Brno I had to give a "Me & IBM" presentation to the project management unit.  Basically where I came from, my background, how I ended up in Czechland, blah blah blah.  It's hard to believe that was almost 12 years ago.

Mozaiko is the local IBM communications team initiative to champion cultural diversity.   The team has been on me for a while about basically doing the same kind of presentation but for the entire centre.   I've dodged the bullet a few times by recommending other speakers but I finally ran out of excuses so it was my time to present again.

Over the years I've had many people want to see photos of me when I was a kid and from when I was in the U.S. Air Force.  Never let it be said that I'm not a good sport.  

Me with a football?  I don't even like American football.  

Back at basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.  This was October 1989 before I went to tech school.

I then gave the story of how a California dude ended up in Atlanta before eventually coming to Brno.

I shared my career history of how I found myself working for IBM.  I spoke about some of the opportunities I've had here in Brno as well as about how I keep myself busy while not working.

Yesterday's web presentation and Q&A session lasted an hour.  The entire thing was recorded and made available for IBMers who can download it.  Hopefully this means I'm off the hook for at least a few more years.

2020 Pride Business Forum

The 10th annual Pride Business Forum was supposed to take place in Prague on 17 June but it was cancelled due to COVID-19. 

So today the event was streamed live, with parts having been pre-recorded.  I was impressed with how well the organisers pulled this off.
The entire event is available on YouTube.  It is 2 hours, 44 minutes long.

©Pride Business Forum

Among the key guests include:

Fabrice Houdart, Managing Director, Out Leadership

Vladimír Dlouhý, President, the Czech Chamber of Commerce

Victor Madrigal-Borloz, UN Independent Expert on SOGI

Zdeněk Hřib, Mayor of Prague

Dagmar Kuchtová, Director General, the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic

For the first time, IBM placed first for the the LGBT Friendly Employer Award.  If you don't watch the entire video you can skip to IBM winning at 1:46:41.

The jury praised IBM's comprehensive approach to LGBT equality in the workplace, including setting internal rules against discrimination and homophobic / transphobic bullying, a proactive approach to recruiting and retaining LGBT talent, active work by internal employee resource group and strong support for LGBT people in Czech society.  In particular, the jury praised the active role that IBM's management played in the country's debate on equal marriage in 2019.

IBM tied for first with last year's winner Vodafone.

2020 Pride

Due to COVID-19 there weren't Pride parades in Bratislava or Prague this year. So  definitely no dancing on a float in a toga like last year. 

So instead we decided to have a picnic at Kraví hora.  

We grilled out, played music, and appreciated being able to get together without having to wear masks.

For sure the most laid back, calm Pride event that I've been to.  But great fun hanging out in the park all day.

Reunion Night

My old IBM team, the old behind all of the pranks, at one point had over 70 people.  I left just over a year ago and now that team is only about a dozen people.  I still miss that team a lot.

Well tonight was a little get together and over 30 people showed up.  Most everyone has either moved on to other roles at IBM or gone on to other companies.  But it was so good to catch up with everyone, some of which I haven't seen in at least three years.  Not a bad turnout given it was a cold, rainy night.

IT Nightmares

Last night was a presentation call "IT Nightmares" at Masaryk University.  It was for 1st year students in the Faculty of Informatics.  The point was sharing real world examples of when things didn't go quite right and how to overcome difficulties.  

IBM was the event sponsor and there were two other companies that joined in the presentation.

Somehow I was tasked to be the moderator.  Fortunately it was all in English.  It was a lot of fun and I had the chance to talk to several students afterwards.

5th Annual Art From the Heart Auction

Five years ago was the first "Art From the Heart" charity auction at IBM and I had been volunteered to be the auctioneer.  

Today was the 5th auction and the designated auctioneer was unable to do it so I was asked to fill in at the last minute.

It was a lot of fun and we raised over 40.000 Kč (about $1,720) for a children's oncology charity.

Pride Business Forum Diversity Workshop

One of my personal goals for a while has been for the local IBM office to host a diversity & inclusion workshop and today it finally happened.  Today's workshop was on "Creating a workplace free from discrimination, prejudice and exclusion and an opportunity to learn, discuss and debate key issues relating to diversity and inclusion in the workplace."  In cooperation with RWS Moravia and the Pride Business Forum, this was the first workshop of its kind in the region.  

This was the first time that the Pride Business Forum has held an event outside of Prague so I'm extra proud that IBM Brno hosted the event.

Initially we thought that we would have only a small number of participants attending but we have over 20 delegates from 15 different companies plus even a representative from the Brno City Council.

Agile2k19 Conference

Today was the 4th annual Agile Conference at IBM Client Innovation Centre Brno.

This year's Agile2k19 was a half-day of presentations followed by a half-day of interactive workshops.  These conferences are always very energising.

My team started these annual workshops back in 2016.  A couple of the original team members are no longer with IBM but they still came back as guest presenters.

2019 Prague Pride

This weekend was 9th annual Prague Pride.  IBM was one of the sponsors and participated in the parade.  I'm not quite certain how, but somehow, I ended up in a toga on the float.

Unfortunately, it rained on Saturday.  But even with the rain it was still and awesome day.  I hear about 30,000 people participated in this year's parade.

This was my third Pride parade this year after Vienna and Bratislava.  This was by far the most fun.

Here's a short YouTube video that our executive sponsor put together.

©Christian Noll

2019 Bratislava Pride, Slovakia

Yesterday was the 9th annual Rainbow Pride in Bratislava.  I originally planned to go Friday and spend the whole weekend but I've got so much going on that I decided to just go for the day.

Last year I helped staff the IBM booth during the parade.  There wasn't booth this year so I participated in the parade.  In the USA, when you go to the pride parade it's to watch the parade.  Here, you are the parade.

The American embassy supporting Pride

This year's event was attended by around 10 000 people including the city's mayor and the public defender of rights.

In protest, there was another march by the Proud of the Family.  I hear that only a few hundred people showed up for that.

What was impressive about this year is that many of the foreign embassies came together for a joint statement of support.  The following embassies signed:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uruguay, and the Representation of the European Commission in Slovakia.

It was a nice day.  Now looking forward to this year's Prague Pride.

Finally in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I finally made it to Malaysia.  Finally as in I've been wanting to go to Kuala Lumpur for about 20 years now.  Finally also as in it was a 13 hour flight from London Heathrow on British Airways.

Finally, also as in, I'm actually here.  I used to have a project management team located in Cyberjava and I was supposed to visit them five different times.  But something always came up.  Usually it made more sense to either send someone else or to bring some of them over to Brno instead of me going there.

The team was disbanded in 2016 but I still miss working with this group.  Jessica was waiting for me at my hotel when I arrived.  I checked in, dropped off my bags, and we headed out to meet some of the gang for dinner.  It was so nice catching up with everyone.

What made this really special is that Kartik is the only one who still works at IBM.  Everyone else has moved on to other companies but they still came out tonight.  Dolika is now living in Europe but she joined on FaceTime long enough to be in the selfie.  What an incredible start to my KL adventure.  Now to get some sleep and hope that there's not too much rain tomorrow.

Dharma, Lik Min, Kartik, Jessica, and Dolika on video.

2019 Pride Business Forum

Yesterday was the 9th annual Pride Business Forum in Prague.  Like last year, this is the only platform in Czechland for open discussion of LGBT equality in the workplace across companies.  This year's theme was Equality in the Workplace: It's Easier Than You Think.

Team IBM

It was an awesome event with hundreds of participants including executives, HR, and diversity resource group members.  The perfect group of people to share best practices about creating inclusive workspaces for LGBT employees.

For the second year there were LGBT Friendly Employer awards. This year 1st place went to Vodafone, 2nd place went to Accenture and 3rd place went to ExxonMobil.

One of the workshops was about the difficulties people have transitioning in the Czech Republic.  I doubt that's an easy process anywhere.  About 50-60 people transition each year in ČR.

1. A person is formally diagnosed with "transsexualism."  This requires approval from a physician and a sexologist.  
2. Trans people are required to divorce their spouse or same-sex registered partner.
3. Then come hormone treatment for a year.
4. Next comes the "real life test," where people have to live day-to-day full-time in their new gender.
5. Mandatory sterilisation.
6. Czech grammar is rigid when it comes to names.  Trans people must change they name to a neutral version which means they can only pick from a few dozen possible names.  A neutral suffix is used with their surname.
7. After all of the previous conditions have been completed, the patent has to appear before a board of doctors, psychologists, and lawyers who determine if the he or she is in good mental health and has fulfilled the requirements for surgery.
8. Only after the surgery is complete can the patient apply for a legal gender change so that the gender on their ID matches their new gender.  
9. The patent may then decide to keep their gender neutral name or select a new female or male name to match their new legal gender.

Apparently the process to change genders in Czechland is among the most difficult in the EU.  The policy of mandatory sterilisation surgery has been ruled in violation of the European Committee of Social Rights.  So the policy violates European law but none the less it is still required.

Yesterday's workshop was very educational.  It gave me an appreciation for just how difficult it is for a trans person to go through his or her transition.  Plus several things that can be an issue for trans people in the workplace.  For example, HR may not be able to check employee references of a candidate because a former employer may know the candidate only by a previous gender and not the new one.

Update:  Here's a short video I found of the conference out on YouTube.

©Pride Business Forum

New ID Badge

I'm quickly approaching my 10 year Euroland adventure anniversary.  How in the hell has it been almost 10 years?!?!  When I came over I committed to stay for two years.  Possibly a third year if I really liked it.

2009 ID

Now it's almost a decade later and I'm still here.  Things just have a way of working themselves out and let's face it...I really to love it here.  

2019 ID

As long as I can pass my language exam next year then I'll apply for Czech citizenship.  

Our ID badges at work have a ten year limit so I had to swap out my old badge for a new one.  At least I like the photo better on my new badge.