I hadn't not heard from him from a long time, didn't have his contact information, googled him and randomly landed on his obituary. I was shocked to learn that he had passed away 3 years ago at the age of 70.
Dennis was recruited away from Olin skis and came from an ultra-corporate environment to land in a small company, poorly funded and badly organized. He was placed at my hierarchical level (I did general management and marketing while he was in charge of national sales) and the Look higher-ups' idea was to see which one of us would take over.
Dennis had a long commute from Connecticut that made his family life miserable. Further, his expertise was more in advertising (one of my assignments) than sales. Because of it he was neither successful at staffing his sales force effectively and didn't quite understand how to work our dealer network; he lasted less than two years on the job.
After that, he stayed in the sporting goods business as a rep. With him, I learned one other definition of world “ albatross” that he loved to use all the time: “something that causes persistent deep concern or something that greatly hinders accomplishment...”
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