I don’t look at my RSS feed or my Twitter account until I’m finished with my day’s work, so it wasn’t until last night that I read Broc Romanek’s blog post announcing his retirement from thecorporatecounsel.net.  He’s already received a number of gracious and, I am sure, sincere paeans, including from my friend and mentee (or so he says) Doug Chia, and I won’t attempt to expand upon them.  Moreover, Broc is far too young and energetic to be the subject of what appear to be eulogies.  (To paraphrase something an elderly friend frequently says, he’s not dead yet!)

However, I will say that Broc is simply the best.  He’s incisively smart, hysterically funny, candid, passionate, inspiring, and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.  And he is the fastest draw in the west, managing to scoop every other news source about SEC and governance matters.  I’ve also had the privilege – and great pleasure – of speaking at Broc’s annual conferences and participating in his webinars for the last few years, and in contrast to the scripted and sometimes over-planned presentations at so many other programs, speaking on panels (and listening to others) at a Broc program is just plain fun – unrehearsed, spontaneous, a bit crazy, yet always informative, in large part because they are so engaging.

I’ve had a great career, with lots of high points, but as far as I’m concerned, becoming an FOB (friend of Broc) is one of my professional pinnacles.

I know that Broc will move on to something else, and regardless of what it turns out to be, I know it and he will continue to be terrific.  Hopefully he’ll take us along for the ride.  For now, I can only wish him all he deserves.