Why Sun?

Since returning two weeks ago, I’ve gotten the “Why did you decide to go back to Sun?” question many times.

I’ll be the first to admit that corporate profits and resulting stock performance have not been exactly stellar (I still have a bunch of stock from when I was at Sun before, so I’ve been paying attention, too). But when I looked at it, there were 3 things that made it compelling:

1. Innovation. As I’ve written before, I believe we’re going to need serious innovation in order to tackle our energy and environment challenges over the coming years. Sun has the track record of innovation that I’ll hold up against anyone.
2. People. There’s folks who are still there, folks who’ve come back, and new faces that I know from elsewhere. I can start naming names, but if you follow Sun at all you know great examples from all three of these categories.
3. Critical mass. I could be innovative in a startup with a small group of hand selected folks, but I know that I’d never have the leverage that you when you tap into the power of a company the size of Sun.

Finally, I came away from my previous tour at Sun knowing that it was a place that I could get things done. The environment that Scott, Jonathan et al have created works well with my style.

So, that’s the background on the job and why I’m here. Now its on to eco topics!