By Rocky Graziano, Human Resources Program Manager
Over the last several months, I’ve had the pleasure of sharing profiles of our CEO Award winners, a talented, passionate group of leaders from across our organization. Today’s post may mark the final installment in this series, but our commitment to innovation and teamwork at Cerence certainly continues each and every day.
Make sure you check out volume one for the background on the CEO Award, our highest level of recognition at Cerence, and volume two to meet a few more of our winners.
Here we go…
Uli, Principal IT End User Services Specialist, GTS
Germany
Years with Cerence: 26
Uli is a member of our End User Services team, which won the team award in 2020’s CEO Awards. Like every IT team at every company in the world, our IT organization had to adapt quickly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to Uli and the rest of the End User Services team, our people were up and running at home with all the necessary equipment in record time, while the team continued their work on necessary improvements to our ticketing system. When asked about his role, Uli explains:
“I am a typical end user supporter and really like to help my international colleagues with their usual and unusual problems. In the last few months, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting – at least electronically – many new faces in the organization, as I have spent a large part of my time packing and shipping laptops from my home office to new and existing employees from Norway to Japan.”
When UIi isn’t working, he loves reading mystery novels and philosophical books, hiking through the hills, and playing guitar. The pandemic has strengthened the importance of music in Uli’s life, causing him to miss singing with his friends in the choir the most. He’s been married for over 30 years, and he has two daughters, a son-in-law, and two grandsons (ages 2 ½ and 1 year).
A quote Uli lives by comes from C.S. Lewis: “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
Kevin, Senior IT System Administrator, IT End User Services
China
Years with Cerence: 3
Kevin is also part of the End User Services Team along with Uli. His daily responsibilities include helping employees with all of their IT needs, a role he enjoys as he has the opportunity to connect with so many people throughout the organization. Kevin helped keep the Cerence train on the tracks during COVID-19, helping our team seamlessly transition to remote work while supporting them through any hiccups along the way.
Outside of work, Kevin loves football, music and movies. He’s married with a son and is an avid runner who’s always looking for new running buddies.
Kevin’s favorite quote is quite inspiring: “The heart has the tigers, fine sniffing the rose.”
Uli's choir and one of his grandsons, and Kevin
Congratulations to Uli, Kevin, and the rest of our winners on being recognized as CEO Award Winners! For more on what it’s like to work at Cerence, visit www.cerence.com/careers.