In this 17‑minute farewell monologue, Christophe Bodin reflects on his 35‑year professional journey, structuring it around four chronological stages and three "exceptional" teams that shaped his growth. He begins with the early Gupta era (1990‑1997), where he transitioned from programmer to founder‑CEO of Comit, meeting his future wife Nadia and close friends Jean‑Luc, Muriel, and Rez. He then recounts his seven years at IBM/Lotus (1997‑2004), highlighting international moves to Singapore and Sydney, mentorship from Neil Lettsmith, and the first exceptional team in Sydney. The third stage covers his middleware years at BEA and Oracle (2004‑2008), where he led EMEA support, moved to the US, and built a second exceptional team, forging relationships with senior leaders like Larry Ellison, Safra Catz, Jim Petras, and long‑term colleague Mark Graham. The fourth stage spans BMC (2008‑2014), boutique consulting at SBI (2014‑2018), Anaplan (2018‑2020) – including the IPO experience – TradeShift (2020‑2022), and finally DigiCert (2022‑2024), where he formed a third exceptional team and re‑connected with former CFO Dave Morton now CEO. Throughout, Bodin emphasizes that people—not titles, compensation, or press releases—are the true value of his career, citing mentorship, friendships, and the impact of leaders like Paul Avenant, Bob Beecham, and Bill Miller. He concludes by acknowledging a single mutual separation (a firing) and expressing gratitude, signaling the close of this chapter and hinting at a new professional direction.
Chapters
Wow, I can't believe it. Today's my last day in the workforce after starting it 35 years ago. It's kind of mind-blowing to think that tonight is the night where it stops. So, what I wanted to do is to reflect back on those 35 years, and I decided to call it About the People. Because actually, when I started to think about that, what I'm going to say, only people came back to mind. So, it's about the people. It's 35 years of professional life. And, you know, people, I heard that saying, hey, well, Christophe, you worked for 11 companies, 18 different positions, many countries. You're a job hopper. I'm not. I'm not a job hopper. Never been. There's actually only 4 stages in my career. 7 years, 7 years, 7 years, 5 years and a half, and 8 years. Hopefully that adds up to 44, 45. And so let's go through those 4 stages. So the first 7 years, I call them the 7 years of Gupta. Gupta was a company founded by Uman Gupta, Gupta Technology headquartered in Menlo Park, California. I should have read the sign on the wall that I will be ending up in that part of the world. And it was a very new technology back then in the '90s, just starting to appear in France. And I got hired by somebody, Stan Zeltner, in 1990 in a company called NSI, Nouveau Système Informatique, in southern France. And it was really great. Believe it or not, I was a programmer back then. Well, it's actually the company where I found out that I was not really a great programmer and a better fitted salesperson and salesman. But Stan Zellner, who's not with us anymore, unfortunately, really one of the most clever, smarter person I've ever met in my career. He and I decided after a year to start our own company. So we started in '91, Comit, around the Gupta technology and helping companies using that technology called SQL Windows and SQL Base. So I was basically CEO, founder, and salesman for this company. We grew actually pretty big in 5 years. But here I met a lot of great people, but really 2 names, 3 people, but 2 names are really sticking with me. One is Rez, Jean-Luc and Muriel. Mumu has We still call her, became best friends forever. We're still very, very, very close. So it was great to meet them back then in '91. And then also Nadia, my wife of 28 years. This is where we met, a great programmer herself and a great project manager. And we ended up married and 2 kids. So great experience, phenomenal people. And then after the end of this company, I joined Gupta itself in Paris as the head of all services for Sovereign Europe. It was a great 2 years from '95 to '97. At the end, Gupta had a bit of an issue in taking the web emergence. And here I met really 2 exceptional persons. We're not very close for the past couple of years for various reasons, but we really enjoyed our friendship. Back then and many years after with Annick Mondigny and then Mark Estevitz. Really cool time together through those 2 years and staying there. So, that's the first 7 years, the 7 years of Gupta. Then, I moved to the 7 years of IBM. So, it was mind-boggling to me that a company of 330,000 people, that was what the size of IBM was back then, can simply function. So I decided to join IBM and I went through the Lotus door in customer support. It was my first contact with customer support back then in 1997 in Paris and CC mails and Lotus Mail. Met a ton of great people. Christine Charles, my friend since and somebody who we really enjoy working together. People like Valerie Magrez and Virginie Martins, great people in the HR department. We're still chatting. Bob Burns, my friend Roberts. We followed each other in Singapore later on. He helped me when our son was up for delivery and that we needed friends to take care of our daughter. He brought me to Singapore. So I moved from Paris to Singapore. It was a huge move in 2000. Neil Lettsmith, my boss's boss, taught me a ton in leadership. Somebody that really, really made a difference in my professional life. And then I moved to Sydney around end of 2002, 2003, 2002. And this is my first exceptional team. And believe me, if you're early in your career, and you probably agree with me if you're advanced in your career, it's not often that you work with extraordinary team. To me, there's been 3 teams that are my first team down in Sydney, Down Under. It was in 2002. So it was like 12 years after I started my career. And That was exceptional. Of course, 2 names come to mind: Angela Hinch, as I used to call her, Angela Mihailarius, Dominic Sio, Elizabeth then Podolenko, Ian O'Keefe became her husband after that, John Callahan, a few others. Sorry, I'm missing your name. I'm just thinking down the memory. And that was an exceptional team. I still remember what we did together and It was truly elite, truly exceptional. And then I came back to France. So, that was really the Asia-Pac time and the international and the end of the 7 years of IBM. So, it was time to start the 7 years of middleware. So, in 2004, I joined BEA. My first vice president title and general manager of EMEA support and maintenance was brought by actually my prior manager at IBM. And luckily enough, that was actually my second exceptional team. So very close to each other. And then I had a drought for about almost 20 years. But that huge memory of people like Sarah Jane, Sarah Jane Jucka, Philip Rockwell, Nick Bolch, Martin Moselle, Patrice Aguillot. This is also how I ended up in the US with that team. We were so successful that they brought me in the US to run the American operation for the same scope. maintenance and support. This is where I met Roger McConville and somebody else that I'll talk at the end because he stick with me for so long that I keep it for the end. That's also where I met with an external consultant, Mike Figliuolo. We met actually in Phoenix, Arizona, and then we stayed friends to that time. I consulted him for big choice in my professional life after, but really, really cool moment. And then, we got acquired by Oracle. I didn't choose to work for Oracle. We got acquired by Oracle in 2008, I think it was. And I had the chance and privilege to meet and discuss and meet and be part of meetings with people like Larry Ellison and Safra Catz and Mark Hurd. And that was my first one-on-one connection with people at that level. It was really great. And also met somebody, Jim Petras. He was my boss at Oracle. Oracle and a phenomenal human being, taught me a lot about actually the American culture in general and the professional American culture in particular. So I will never thank enough Jim for all of this. And then it came to an end, 7 years in middleware between BEA and Oracle when we got acquired. And I moved to the next 5 years and a half to the BMC years. So I joined BMC. didn't know anybody. I was job hunting. And I can't thank enough my first boss here, Paul Avenant. Paul, incredible human being, very, really somebody that counted. He actually had a big impact on my personal life, explaining to me all the mistakes that I shouldn't do, having an athlete, our son, in our family. To this day that I'm talking, he's still a professional athlete. And his son, Paul's son, was also in the fleet at the time. He was an NCAA basketball player. And he told me how not to miss those moments. And I can't thank him enough for that and for all the things that he did after. So Paul Avedon, but also 2 names that really resonate with me from my BMC time. And it's Michel Cabon. Michel had a great career and still having a great career at BMC. big friend now. She knows the family inside out and we got to know each other and an extraordinary human being. And also Bob Beecham, he was the CEO at that time. He's been the CEO of BMC for many years. And for all the CEOs I worked for directly, Bob has been the one that has been by far the most impactful by being so human, by being always here to help, by being the CEO, but also never forgetting who he's been. and who he was, and he's taught me a lot. We actually bumped into each other after that at Anaplan where he was a board member. I have to also mention Jason Andrew, my Kiwi friend. He's been the CRO at BMC for a lot of years. He's moved down now. Exceptional human being, great sales leader, somebody I'd love to chat about rugby, for instance. Both being initially from big rugby country. I need also to mention Bill Miller. Bill Miller was probably the old-fashioned manager, the most old-fashioned manager that I had in my career, but he taught me a lot and he was an incredible person. Together with 2 consultants who helped us when we were— and I was leading the overall change of go-to-market. at BMC and we had Bain Company helping us and Josh Rydberg and Brian Stuckey were in the team at Bain. They had phenomenal career elsewhere since, but really, really cool people to hang in with. And then really, we did an incredible thing. At the end of BMC, so it was the end of phase 3 and now entering the last stage, the 8 years of sales, I decided to move out of corporate America and join a boutique consulting firm called SBI, still the name of the firm at the moment, and met a ton of great people. But one is standing out, and that's Ponch. We all had nicknames at SBI. Mine was Big Game because I was the guy hunting the biggest deal. And Ponch was Eric Estrella, obvious connection between his nickname and his last name. And Eric, extraordinary human being. I was still with him a couple of weeks back and we were chatting about stuff. And gosh, did we have interesting moments at SBI! together. And then I moved to Anaplan in 2018. That was— Anaplan was a client, my last client at SBI!, and I moved there for what is arguably the most extraordinary time in my career by Going through the IPO and standing with the ELT on the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange. I was in New York when we did that, but it was great. But again, it's about the people. It's where I met Dave Morton. Dave was the CFO at the same time that I was there. And we obviously kept in touch and worked together later at Digicert. But also, you know, 2 people, there's many, plenty of people at Annaplan that I remember, but Spatial You know, mention for my right-hand man, John Bray, initially from the UK. So it was an interesting combination between the two of us, but extraordinary relationship. And also helped with Lindsay Ho from Korean origin. That was really a nice mix, the three of us moving really the needle at Anaplan. So in 2020, this is where I joined TradeShift. Not much to think about from a professional standpoint, but on a personal, well, people connection, you know, Carrie Dolan, she was the CFO when I first joined and we formed that great relationship carrying a lot of things together for the company. And I also hired James Turek, who's now the CEO at DigiCert, and incredible person with a phenomenal personal story. And really enjoy how we build another sales mentality in the company. And then came the last ride, the ride that is finishing tonight. Yeah, at DigiCert for the past 2 years. Here again, phenomenal people. Can't thank enough Dave Morton, My CFO at Anaplan and now the CEO. He was a CFO back then at DigiCert when he called me and said, hey, come over. I want to be able to work again together. And Mike Johnson, a really good partnership. Hopefully we'll keep in touch. I'm sure we'll keep in touch. But also that was incredible team number 3. So only 3 incredible teams. I don't think that you can expect having more than that on 30, 35 years of professional life. So, you know, people like Mondo, Olivier, Mike Nelson, Rich, Linda, Beth, Roman, Stuart, extraordinary team. Hopefully I'm not forgetting people, but, you know, just phenomenal. It was hard to say goodbye to them, but they're gonna do phenomenal things. So that's the 3 incredible team. One in One in Lotus IBM, one in BEA Oracle, and one at DigiCert. And also, I did say, hey, there's somebody, and his name is Mark Graham. We met in, I think it was 2005, so 20 years ago almost, at BEA. And we worked together at BEA, Oracle after we got acquired, at BMC, at Anaplan, at TradeShift, and at DigiCert. So we used to say that we brought her from different mothers and then really enjoyed those 20 years of working together and being friends right now. So that's what it is. You know, at the end, it's not about the rewards. It's not about the professional achievement, about the financials, about the press release, about all of that stuff, because it's also compensated by the bad quarters, getting fired. I only got fired once in all of this career, but well, a mutual separation, but I didn't start it. It was long ago, but really, it's compensating that what makes a difference is the people. What makes a difference is what you gain from those relationships and how you help each other to grow and to become hopefully a better human being, better leader, better manager, but more importantly, better human being. So, time for me not to close the book, but to close the chapter tonight. A 35-year-long chapter and open a new chapter. We'll probably announce next week what it is, but wanted first to take a deep breath and think about the past 34, 35 years and thinking, and thinking about all of these people. So thank you all. It's been a great time, and I see you in the next chapter. Bye. Bye.
