Last night there was a retirement party for my old friend and mentor, Jim Quanci, in the Autodesk Gallery in our 1 Market Street office in downtown San Francisco.
Jim has just posted his reflections on his retirement to LinkedIn, so I thought it a good time to chime in with my own thoughts and feelings.
I’ve known and worked with Jim for upwards of 25 years. Some of that has been captured in this collage I put together for the kudoboard his colleagues (past and present) put together for his retirement.
I genuinely believe that Jim has had a profound impact on our industry in his 34 years at Autodesk. Jim was quick to identify and drive forward many developer-focused innovations in our technology stack, over the years. We’re talking about the transition to object-based C++ programming with [Object]ARX, the introduction of Visual LISP and VBA, the exposure of AutoCAD .NET, the verticalization of industries via products both based on AutoCAD and otherwise, the move to the cloud and the creation of Forge, its maturation into APS… Jim has been there through it all. And always smiling.
As I said in the kudoboard, it’s really hard to find the words to describe what Jim has meant to me. His deep knowledge of industries in the Design & Build space, his empathy for our customers and his employees, his relentless passion for (and this isn’t some Silicon Valley meme) helping our customers make a better world… Jim’s excitement for his job has been infectious, and I’m happy to have been the recipient of said infection. Jim has been there through the births of my 3 kids (I don’t mean in the hospital, I mean figuratively, but always with a personalized towel sent in the post ;-) and many of the professional and personal trials and tribulations I’ve had over the years. Not to put too fine a point on it, without Jim I wouldn’t still be at Autodesk. That much I know.
Here’s a photo of Jim’s retirement speech, courtesy of Michael Beale:
I couldn’t be at Jim’s retirement party in person, but I set my alarm for 1:30am and Cyrille Fauvel was kind enough to set up a video chat on his phone so that I could talk to Jim and Mary for a while. Precious moments with people I care about deeply.
I should probably finish with some pithy quote about sailing and trade winds, but anyway.
Jim: thank you for everything. You talked about what Autodesk has done for you, and how lucky you are, but you somehow forgot to mention all the incredible things you’ve done for Autodesk, its customers, partners and employees. And how lucky we’ve all been to have worked with you.
Please do come and see us soon: our spare room is ready for your (family’s) visit!
