When I joined 3Com in 1989, its campus was located on Kifer Road in Santa Clara. On my first day, I recall walking with some of the team members to the Decathlon Club right off Central Expressway for a fun and friendly lunch with various 3Com finance folks. The woman with black hair below, Cindy Hawkins, was one of those at that lunch. Judy Bruner, my hiring manager, Cindy, among others were strong influences on me in those early years as I worked hard to prove myself in a newly formed internal audit role.
Today, 3Comers in Silicon Valley still enjoy getting together. Here’s a shot of some of the alumni that are mentioned in the book, taken May 2017 in Redwood Shores.
From left to right – in forefront, Jack Moses, author Jeff Chase, Cindy Hawkins, Jim Hayes, Gerald Petak, Gary Heidenreich, Dan Robertson, and Colleen Thuener
When I started in 1982 I became part of a family. Howard Charney hired me from a 5 minute interview. He pointed me to Colleen Thuener who did HR among many other jobs. We often called Dan Robertson at 10pm to come in and build another server so we could make our numbers. I played softball with James Hayes who played as hard as he he did at softball as he did running production lines. He ran the giant EZ bake ovens for cooking network boards. Great memories and great people.