There are certain news items on media sites that nothing can prepare you for.
A post by Lumentum on LinkedIn paid tribute to the passing of chief technology officer (CTO) Brandon Collings, aged 51; the unfolding words revealing the magnitude of the company’s loss.
Brandon Collings was a wonderful person and a joy to know. He had that rarest gift of being able to explain complex technologies and make sense of trends with answers of extraordinary clarity.
Who else could explain the intricacies of a colourless, directionless, contentionless, flexible, reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) while describing the ROADM market as “glacially slow”?
It was a joy to meet him at shows and interview him by phone.
Early in my interviews with him, I misspelt his name in a printed article. This was a rookie mistake. His response was generous, as if to say it was a most straightforward error.
I once asked Brandon to discuss recent books he had read and rated. He didn’t have much time to read, he said, but he loved reading to his children.
One favourite book in his household was “ish” by Peter Reynolds.
It is about a young boy who loves to draw everywhere. His elder brother sees his work and mocks it.
The boy continues, striving to draw better, but the results are 'ish' pictures - for example, a 'vase-ish' drawing rather than a vase. Frustrated, he stops.
But his sister loves his 'ish'-like sketches, giving him the confidence to return to drawing and develop his unique style, which he then extends to his life.
Brandon’s summary: “A cute story about viewing the one’s self and the world through one’s own eyes rather than through others.”
After interviewing the CTO of Ciena late last year, I decided to make it the opening of a series of CTO interviews. Brandon Collings was first on the list.
I last met with him at the OFC show in March. After meeting with him, I was to meet Verizon’s Glenn Wellbrock, and we decided Glenn would come to the Lumentum stand as a meeting place.
After finishing the interview with Brandon, I went looking for Glenn only to spot he was already with Brandon. I watched how the two warmly embraced, talked animatedly and were delighted to share a moment.
The last time I saw Brandon was on the evening of OFC’s penultimate day.
I was in a restaurant, and we spotted Brandon and his Lumentum colleagues at a nearby table. At some point, Brandon got up, went round the table and said goodbye to his colleagues.
My impulse was to try and catch his eye and say goodbye. But he was getting a red-eye flight; he grabbed his backpack and was gone.
It is hard to imagine the void felt among his colleagues at Lumentum or by his beloved family.
The optical industry has many great, kind, and wonderful people. But this is a loss, an industry subtraction.
For me, his passing marks the industry into a before and an after.