A new job, a new future
2012 marks my 12th year working for Praxair since graduating from RIT with a degree in IT. I started working on Praxair’s first e-Commerce systems, and then transitioned to help build Praxair’s first intranet on Lotus Domino, and then was part of the team that rolled out Microsoft SharePoint enterprise wide for document management and collaboration, eventually transitioned all the intranet content to this platform as well.
It’s been five years since I started on our SharePoint implementation project, and recently a new opportunity arose that piqued my interest. The opportunity was to rejoin the e-Commerce group, however this time as part of the business team instead of the IT team. It’s a great opportunity for me to become directly involved with the products we sell and learn more about our business operations.
This new role also sets me on a track which will likely result in me relocating out of the Buffalo area, which will be a bittersweet change as I’ve grown to know so many people here and invested so much time and affection in certain pet projects. However, those experiences certainly helped build my skills which ultimately prepared me for this career move.
For the near term, though, I’ll be sticking around and continuing to work with our IT team here, and our business teams in Chicago and Danbury. I’m excited to be taking on this new challenge at Praxair.
I am pleased to announce that Derek Punaro, currently Lead IT Information Architect, has accepted the position of E-Commerce Specialist, reporting to me. Derek will replace [redacted], who has left Praxair to pursue other opportunities.
Derek’s main focus will be the e-catalog that supports all our different packaged gas e-commerce channels and will work closely with everyone on the team in this capacity. One important part of this will be to work with the Product Data Hub project team to align the system and workprocesses with the e-catalog efforts. Derek’s broad experience in information architecture, programming and systems will be a great asset to the business.
Derek will work to transition from his current position to his new role over the coming weeks and will be in contact with many of you to understand our projects, data, systems and work processes. Please join me in welcoming Derek to our team!
Jakob Janzon
Marketing & Business Development
Praxair, Inc.
Congrats cousin! Best of luck in the new position. 🙂
Lets just say this will be a HUGE change for ALL of us. There are many people and jobs I will be leaving as well. I will miss everything we have built here for ourselves in Buffalo, but am definitely excited for Derek’s new opportunity at Praxair and our opportunity as a Family to move into a new area and make new friends.
Congratulations Derek! I am so happy and proud for you! What an opportunity. Remind yourself and Amanda that things happen for a reason. Transition may be difficult but will be for the best. Love you all. Laura
Congratulations on the new job. Didn’t you start out with the e-catalog (on the dark side as you will soon call it)?
I worked on the catalog for a little bit between the eCommerce and intranet projects. Of course, the technology is all different now. Going to be interesting!