Farewell Appreciation Lunch for Bandu

Memphis, TN
The last day lunch at Spagetti Warehouse!! End of an active second innings at AutoZone!!

I have cut the colorful cake which had the message "Congratulations Jayaprakash Bandu".

Tom (Thomas McKnight) gave the toast speech appreciating my presence at AutoZone and the cultural knowledge we have exchanged with each other. He certainly wants India and The States to be great friends forever!! I certainly owe a lot of credit to Tom for being my professor on American history and culture. I have never hesitated to ask about anything I wanted regarding America!! Thanks Tom!!

After a pretty decent lunch, I had to stand up for the speech (I wasn't prepared for one, though!!).

There was nothing I could tell to such an elite group of AutoZoners. "Thank You All", I started when somebody asked me to say some words. "Thanks Again", I extended when somebody wanted me to tell few more words.

Getting to the business, I started from Guru who has helped a lot initially when I came onsite first time in 2001. Into the business and technology, I had to start with extending my thanks to Bob Celmer. He is my teacher and will remember for a long time. Then went on to Chris Geigel and Congjun Yang. These are the two guys I have spent a lot of time working at AutoZone. I learned a lot of things from these two individuals more than anybody on the technology side. Thanked the business team including Kathryn Ritter for all their support.

Another round of thanks to Cheri. Lisa and Cheri have been very instrumental in giving a shape to my career at AutoZone. With Loyalty project initiation, Cheri has empowered me to take more ownership on AutoZone projects. I vaguely heard Cheri telling from the back "You are the Best, Bandu"!!!. (I always like appreciations, thanks Cheri!!). I reiterated about my two promotions I got while working directly for Cheri!!

Stephen Mautner - The man who put me on my toes!! Every day exchanging mails at 10:30 in the night was very special!! He has a lot of passion for the work he does!! I thoroughly enjoyed working for him. He constantly supported me through the ups and downs in implementing all the projects. We did not stick to the clauses in the SOWs but tried to deliver the product and achieve project goals. (Later in the day he stressed on this point and appreciated my ownership on the projects!! It was very emotional moment of the day!!). I will take a lot of things with me what I learned while working with Stephen.

I have to thank each and everyone but I missed many people as it was not a planned speech!! Sorry!!!

I turned to my MphasiS team!! Started with Aravind to thank how much support he gave me all these years. He was my first onsite coordinator. Thanked all the offshore team who were key to my success all the years. I thanked Manju for all the support he gave personally and professionally. Also thanked Saradhi for his support from offshore, especially in the loyalty project.

Finally I thanked Anu and Radhika for their moral support all these years!!

I will miss most of you guys and look forward to work with each one of you at a later time in my career!!

Aravind concluded with a speech at the end. With a lot of hand shakes at the end, we finished the farewell lunch!! Thanks to Aravind and team for arranging one!!

The lunch is graced by the presence of Cheri Pinkston (IT Director), Radhika Daggula (MphasiS), Anuradha Naidu (MphasiS), Aravind Singtalur (MphasiS), Kaviraj Mohan (MphasiS), Venkat Namburi (MphasiS), Biju Zachariah (MphasiS), Roy Mathew (MphasiS), Corlo (Mexico team), Lamar Thornton (Technology Adviser), Chris Geigel (AZ Developer), Congjun Yang (Senior Technology Adviser), John Tippit (Technology Adviser), Bryant Haynes (Marketing Analyst), Kathryn Ritter (Marketing Analyst), Girish Tanna (Marketing Analyst), Nareesh Soma (AZ Developer), Pramod Mallikarjunaiah (Technical Architect), Guruprasad Nagaraj (Technical Architect), Subhash Choudannavar(AZ Developer), Dinesh Udupi (AZ Developer), Stephen Mautner (IT Manager), Robert Glover (IT Manager), Bryan Marino (Business Analyst), Kavita Pathak (IT Project Manager), Manjunatha Badiger (MphasiS), Mohan Srinivasarao (MphasiS), Anil Kumar (MphasiS), Maruthi Bajantri (MphasiS) and Thomas McKnight (AZ Developer).

Farewell Appreciation Lunch for Bandu

Lisa Terry (IT Director), Cheri Pinkston (IT Director), Doyle Sanders (IT Director), Bill MacNeil (IT Director), Bob Celmer (Senior Technology Adviser), ChriS Creech (Senior Technology Adviser) and Ken Brame (CIO) attended my farewell lunch chaired by Lisa Terry. Aravind and Santosh attended from MphasiS.

A great honor for a good job done for AutoZone's business. This is the highest recognition I have received in the last 8 years of professional life and its a sense of achievement!! A CIO attending a farewell lunch!!