No, this is not a farewell post, but rather the opposite. It’s Dr John Troyer’s birthday!
John lives and breathes his role, as Senior Social Media Strategist at VMware, and I have to say that one of the most brilliant moves VMware has done is to employ John in his current role. Lots of other corporation employ marketing people in their social media roles, VMware went the other way and put the very technically savvy Dr. John in the driving seat. To be honest, I don’t think he even has a rear-view mirror, as he’s constantly evolving and moving forward. Well played VMware, and extremely well executed John.
The vExpert program, that I’m lucky enough to be a part of for 2011, is his brainchild and if there ever should be a honorary vExpert to someone that goes above and beyond his job role it should be awarded to John himself.
In fact, Johns presence in the social media space has helped immensely in creating the community that resolves around VMware products and virtualization as a whole. John has been, and continues to be, instrumental in keeping everyone in the loop and helping out wherever he possibly can.
On a more personal level, I’ve been lucky enough to meet the mammoth wookie on more that one occasion, firstly at VMworld 2010 in Copenhagen and then again (a couple of times) during Tech Field Day #6 in Boston 2011. As the good sport John is, he even contributed in a special vSoup episode! John even contacted me way back in 2006, when the virtualization blogosphere was in it’s infancy, asking if I wanted to have my old site featured on V12n!
Being an european ignorant, I’m possibly stepping on a lot of toes here, but as soon as I see Dr. John Troyer written somehere, I immediately think of Dr. J. Dr.J was a four time MVP and inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 1993.
If there ever was a VMware Hall of Fame board somewhere in Palo Alto, Dr. John should have his employee number retired and his beard put on display.
John, this one is for you. You’ve been an inspiration, mentor and all around great guy for years and years on end. A while ago, you asked on Twitter if ThinApp was VMware’s best kept secret. The real answer to that is a big fat NO. John, you’re the secret and for purely selfish reasons I hope the VMware management never finds out, and kicks you further up the VMware food chain. We small fish need large wookies to keep tabs on us, and help us feeling all cozy and warm.
Happy birthday John!
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