Wayne Whitcomb

Words are not enough to describe what a great human the world has lost. A week after Philip gave me the terrible news I am still sitting here in shock and disbelief. It literally threw me off. I don’t even know where to start to describe the impact Wayne had on me - professionally and personally since my job interview with him in Aug 2004. Wayne was not only an inspirational leader for everyone. I think what I admired the most back then was his infinite patience to bridge all the cultural differences us Germans as Engineering team brought to the US (and there were not just a few). His ability to bring out the best in everyone and his firm believe in German Engineering enabled us to build a platform unique at that time. As a true leader he always stood in front and behind his team and defended it everywhere. Wayne was the true core architect. Everyone of us got the book “The art of scalability” and I remember very clearly how much energy it required him to defend that across the company. He always explained “We must protect our core”. In retrospective I dare to say he was the visionary at Demandware. Without Wayne Demandware would not have developed into such a successful business. On the personal side I will miss the many inspirational talks with Wayne at night at the office. He would not just stop by to say a few words but deepening the conversation to a point where I eventually understood why he came by. He knew from intuition if there was something to talk about. He always managed to come to the point without being offending. Quite the opposite, after many of the talks I often came out confident how to tackle whatever problem it was. I am very grateful for him as coach, facilitator and confidant. I remember some meetings in the early years where he helped me a few times to rephrase my statements so everyone else in the meeting understood what I was trying to convey ;) Wayne was like a father figure to me and what we often referred to as ‘Demandware family’ was to a large degree the result of him relentlessly building relationships and trust amongst all employees. I am also very thankful for the opportunities to visit his family and house and garage in NH. I won’t forget our boy’s eyes when they could take a seat in his Porsche race car. One thing I regret is that he and his family despite having had plans for a few years never got to visit us in Germany. The invitation still stands for Cynthia and her family. We hope we can welcome you here one day. Our thoughts and condolences go out to the entire family during this difficult time.