See you again, Greg

When I think back over my career, perhaps the strangest and most difficult 10 years I spent was the time that I was working at Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
A big, fast paced company where your worth to the organization was measured everyday and if you were not producing or lucky enough to be picked up on the latest reveunue producing contract, you were gone. Now, in EDS terms, that meant you were free to “seek out” assignments in the hopes of being picked up. It made for an environment that was stressful, backbiting and very difficult. The organization, in many ways, had many people who demonstrated the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity, and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying, deception, and manipulation, and the inability to feel remorse or guilt. Then I found myself to a team run by Greg Holowach. Greg ran the Towers Perrin account out of Philadelphia. Simply put, and as I reflect on working for Greg, I’m reminded that those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. He was one of most humble and sincere individuals I ever knew. EDS was an enviroment where the command structure was top-heavy with guys who looked good in uniform and talked right and did well enough not to embarrass themselves, while the really good ones quietly did all the serious work and bailed out their superiors and got blamed for errors they had advised against until they eventually got out. Greg was one of the really good ones. The guy who bailed others out; who made his bosses look good. All the while making sure that those who were on his team were taken care of…… were protected. During my time in Philly, working for Greg, a family member of mine was killed. Greg called me every day that I was out on leave. ‘Ed, what do you need, what can I do’?
I would have run through walls for him. Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness. Greg had all of these traits in abundance. He arrived at greatness early on.
So, I wanted to let those who follow my posts that we lost a good man and the world will be a little less richer for it, but I do believe that Greg is now home and we’ll see him again……God speed, Holowach.