With that, everyone, I'd like to, uh, invite my guest, um, Gwen Pope.

Thanks, Steven.

Uh, really happy to be talking today and, um, pulling forward some of the topics that we've chatted about, um, over recent weeks, and honestly getting, getting down to sort of Q&A and, and some freeform, uh, problem-solving conversation that dispenses with as much as possible of, uh, marketecture speak and acronyms, et cetera.

I'll do my best to steer clear of that, um, but you can keep me honest.

I, I really am, uh, as, as you alluded to in the intro, um, a long time, uh, uh, generalist, uh, you know, solution architect and also just passionate problem solver when it comes to M&A.

Um, I think there are some of us, and I think that you're, you're one of these people, some of us that just cannot resist the, the complex cross-functional, uh, problem-solving set that represents itself, uh, when you go after a deal, uh, strategy, execution, and you're reaching for value creation of some sort, um, that just inherently has a certain type of, of, uh, set of challenges in it.

And, um, early on in my career, I, I got pulled into M&A after spending about a decade or so in very, uh, technical solution architecture-oriented roles and pivoted in, uh, because I was asked to advise on a product integration roadmap, and I was responsible at the time for a, a certain focus of solution architecture practice at Oracle, and that was, as I often joke, but it's true, the beginning of the end.

Mm-hmm.