Today is a bittersweet day for me as it marks the last day that my friend and colleague Stéphane Hamel will be a full-time employee of Cardinal Path. Stéphane (or Stéph as I call him) will be transitioning from his role as Director of Innovation at Cardinal Path to return to his ‘roots’ as an solo practitioner and industry thought leader, innovator, educator. That said, I am delighted that he will remain part of the larger Cardinal Path family via his role as a member of our Advisory Board (read the full announcement).
I’ve known Stéph for many years, first bumping into him as a speaker at conferences, then as my trusted Treasurer when I was President of the Digital Analytics Association (DAA), and finally as colleague when he joined Cardinal Path in 2011. Over the years I’ve watched as he went from innovation to innovation, creating gaAddons, developing WASP (Web Analytics Solution Profiler) – the best tag scanning tool on the market, pioneering the concept of maturity models in the analytics industry (the Online Analytics Maturity Model), and many internal corporate innovations too numerous to mention. His record of accomplishment was rightly recognized by the DAA in 2013 when he was named the Most Influential Industry Contributor, an honour I know he was humbled to receive.
My colleague John Hossack, who is President of Cardinal Path says of Stéph: ‘’We’re lucky to have had someone as talented and visionary as Stéphane working alongside us for as long as we have. Cardinal Path is built on that kind of talent and vision so we look forward to his continued evolution as an industry leader and are grateful for his ongoing commitment to Cardinal Path as an advisor and supporter.’’
I like to say that “busy is the bass line of our lives” and as a result, we sometimes forget to stop and appreciate the moment and feel gratitude for what is. So, on this day, at this time, I’m going to stop and feel appreciation for the many years of our close professional collaboration, express gratitude for the many positive contributions that he has brought (both professional and personal), and share my thanks for being part of the journey so far. While I will miss our many calls, emails and get togethers, I look forward to this new phase and as ever, am grateful to call him my friend.
Bonne chance et bonne route mon ami. Ceci n’est qu’un au revoir.
Alex
PS – If you want to congratulate Stéph, you are welcome to contact him, through his website at http://immeria.net, or email him at shamel@cardinalpath.com (his existing Cardinal Path email continues to work in his ongoing capacity as an advisor to Cardinal Path).
