Since her passing, I’ve been thinking a lot about Anne Sceia Klein, my boss, turned business partner, turned predecessor. The little moments, mostly.I remember Anne’s office arrival routine. In those days, AKCG’s headquarters was one long hallway, and Anne would arrive carrying in each hand a canvas bag of work papers she took home with the intention of going through the night before. She’d stop at every employee’s office, chatting about the previous night’s event, what was happening with clients, or the latest episode of 24. It was a marathon, and by the time she made it to her office – strategically placed furthest from the front door – it was time to turn back around to head to her lunch.She was a connector in its most extreme form, and her connection-making knew no geographic or familial bounds. If you worked for her for a week, you could name three of her cousins.At an event, Anne knew everybody, but she always re-introduced herself just in case they couldn’t place her at that particular moment.She stayed at networking events and banquets so long that the caterers would offer her the centerpieces to take home.She taught dining-etiquette workshops but stuck her finger in every birthday cake that passed in front of her gaze.In 2008, she came to Melissa’s and my wedding (pictured) and somehow ended up trading email addresses with the winery-appointed officiant. And no one who knew her was surprised.She had a wicked memory. She laughed a lot. She didn’t take shit.Professionally, she achieved quite a bit, but, more importantly, she did what she wanted to do the way she wanted to do it, and that’s admirable.We had bumps, as you’d expect with two strong personalities navigating a transition, but I’ll always be grateful to her and Jerry Klein for seeing in me and Mike Gross what we might not otherwise have seen in ourselves.
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