If you want to know a sure way to make Jeff Byers mad, this is it: announce that your company is having a layoff shortly after announcing record profit for the quarter. Or better yet, have his profit sharing check arrive in the mail just after watching a friend and coworker being escorted out of the building in his employer’s latest cost-cutting move. While these actions are very popular on Wall Street, they are sure to get you on Jeff’s “money-grubbing bastards” list of corporate CEOs. And please, don’t start reciting “shareholder value” excuses – Jeff will only get more angry when he hears your small-minded rationalizations of corporate greed.

Jeff worked for me for five years at KLA-Tencor, and it was a love-hate relationship for Jeff the whole time. I know he loved working with the other guys in his team – Mark Smith, Rob Jones, William Howard, Trey Graves, Sanjay Kapasi, John Biafore and others – and on the challenges of advanced lithography simulation. I loved it too – a fun problem and the very best people. But in the end, one too many record-profit layoffs weighed down Jeff’s conscience and he left.

I bring up this story more to talk about me than Jeff. The five plus years that I managed the FINLE R&D team at KLA-Tencor was a truly fantastic experience. And it was phenomenal for one reason – the great people I was fortunate enough to work with. I think Jeff Byers is absolutely the best at what he does in the world. To work with someone who is the best – not just really good, but actually the best – well, that is a rare experience. Those were five years that I will never forget.