Fannie Farewell

My farewell note to my colleagues at Fannie Mae, written on August 15, 2008:

Colleagues,

Today is my last day at Fannie. It's been a pleasure to know all of you, whether it was working on the Restatement, Getting/Staying Current, SIR, or the Credit Initiative, or getting to know you as a vendor, or at a Fannie Mae class (more detailed reflections below). I've been very proud to work at this company, and wish you much brighter days in the months ahead!

For those of you who are interested, after September 1 you will find photos of my French adventures posted on my photo site, www.flickr.com/photos/aribrose.

For those of you who are already planning a trip to the south of France, please give me a heads up by writing me at msbrose@alumni.gwu.edu. (address is also good for those who just want to keep in touch).

Cheers,
Margarita

* * *

When I started at Fannie in January 2006, I thought I knew what I was getting into by joining the Central Project Management Office (cPMO) of the Restatement. Company with a mission, good people, big project. Memories I'll take with me:

• A Workstream list that we updated every week - Restatement was a big project, and there were lots of cast changes!
• Free soda, free meals, free water, it couldn't last forever. And it didn't.
• The ePM meeting - the longest running meeting of the Restatement/Getting Current - Tuesdays at 1 - May 2006 through January 2008. That's staying power.
• Almost finishing the Restatement in November 2006 - then REALLY filing on December 6th.
• CUES Reports - what would we have been without them in all their brilliant colors? It took an army to create them, but they were the barometer for the 8 a.m. meetings. Thanks, Jim!
• The COO meeting - the second longest running meetings of the Restatement/Getting Current - Tuesday through Friday, and Mondays, when needed. From May 2006 through March 2008, I managed the meetings, with the help of lots of folks, including David Valenza, Saadia Mahmud, and Teresa Todd, who was there with me faithfully every morning at 7 a.m.
• The SIR Go Live Team Kick Off meeting in OB II in early September 2007. Found myself on the org chart as the "part-time" Director in charge of the PMO. Yeah, piece of cake, I thought. (Three months later, thinking, what was I thinking?)
• November 2007. With this 10Q filing we're current! But the market doesn't seem to notice that fact. What losses?
• Wednesday 11 a.m. SIR Executive Alignment meetings - It wasn't until January, when Rahul and Linda started attending in earnest, that everyone else wanted to be there too....also known as the Williams phenomenon.
• Monday 4 p.m SIR Stakeholder Meetings - see above. Weekly until everyone seemed to be at the Wednesday meeting. But we kept holding them (full transparency!) regularly until the end (well, almost).
• Tuesday 11 a.m. Dashboard Review meetings - otherwise known as Ron's meeting. Always more fun when Ron was in attendance.
• The deflated feeling in the room during the Executive meeting when we all realized that the planned SIR conversion date was simply not possible or practical - twice.
• Working with talented people on a daily basis, who worked hard for inspiring leaders and for their own satisfaction and belief in the mission of the company.
  

Thank you.

M.