I was a few months into my first job when I stepped into an elevator and made small talk with the man standing next to me. I introduced myself, he gave me his name, and I told him it sounded familiar. He smiled. "It should. I'm the office managing partner."
That man was Lou Salvatore. And that small moment, the simple act of putting out my hand instead of staring at the floor, changed the course of my career. 
Somehow, they hired me anyway.
And so a few months later, there I was, standing next to Lou in an elevator. He could have nodded politely and gotten on with his day. Instead, he made time.
I remember him stopping by for one of my early presentations. The topic, fittingly, was the value of technology, and the moment I clicked into the deck, my laptop froze. He gave me a quiet, encouraging smile, and that was enough to settle me and get me back on track.
Lou was generous with his time, his counsel, and his belief in me, and he supported my career in ways he never had to, long after I left Andersen. I admired him deeply, and I still do.
I think about that elevator often. So much of what came afterward, the mentors, the friendships, the opportunities, had their roots in that small moment of choosing to say hello.
The Andersen years gave me everything I needed for the career that followed. I learned how business actually worked, and I had mentors who took the time to teach me, not just manage me. As a junior consultant, my knowledge was, to put it kindly, limited, which meant we worked as a team to get anything done. Work was our life, and somehow that did not feel like a sacrifice. It felt like belonging. When we were not at the office, we were out with clients. When we were not with clients, we were with each other.
There was something rare about the culture at Andersen. People talk about company culture all the time now, but that one was the real thing. We trained together at St. Charles. We traveled together. We sat in the same hotel restaurants in cities we did not live in, sharing meals and trading stories, and somewhere along the way, we built a shared language that I am not sure anyone outside the firm could fully translate. We were taught to think straight and talk straight, and that ethos seeped into everything, including how we showed up for each other.
When I moved to Frankfurt with Andersen, those bonds traveled with me. New city, new colleagues, same culture of relationships that mattered.
What I find remarkable, all these years later, is that the firm is gone, but the culture is not. When two Andersen alumni meet at a new company, at a conference, or in a city far from where any of it began, there is an instant recognition: ah, you know. You were there. The shorthand still works. The trust shows up before the introductions are even finished. People who never overlapped in their Andersen years find each other across continents and pick up like old friends. There is no other firm I know where that happens quite the same way.
Today, I am still in touch with many people from those days. We do not connect regularly, but the bond holds. There is something about the people who saw you when you were just starting out, green and earnest and still unable to define a Partner, that makes the connection feel permanent.
Whether you are at a large corporation or a startup, the people you meet along the way are an opportunity. Not just for your career, but for your life. If someone comes to mind right now, send them a message. Not a long one. Just enough to say you were thinking of them.
Below, I have listed some of the people from my Andersen days who shaped my life. I am sure I have left people out, and to those people, my apologies up front. The list is incomplete because there are many memories.
Barbara Rothenstein Mary Ellen Ciafardini, SPHR Ann Flanagan Teresa Boyle Lou Bastone Paul DeBartolo Richard M. Fagan William Green Denise Schaaf Jeremy Mears Rudolf Moschitz Charles Chang, CAMS Michael Hab Fabio Cattaneo Jennifer Nuckles Richard M. Fagan Serkan Katilmis Warren Turner Gail P. Steinel, CPA Kerri McKechnie Gabriel Sharlin Adolf Johann Doerig Alan Rosenblatt Andersen Alumni Association Derek Fitteron Dustin Kukuchka Julianne Bing Kristen Kraus Lena Tenzer Borak Markus Tensing Michal Petrzela Mike Emsley Sharmili Basu Tara Gustafson
To all of you: thank you.
The firm may have ended. The family did not.
#relationshipsmatter