Name: Kevin Colby
Title: General Counsel
Company: GOWell
Location: Houston, TX
6:30 am
Woken by my alarm. My internal clock swiftly reminded me that it’s actually 5:30 am if it was not for Daylight Savings. Spend about five minutes cursing daylight savings … Usually with a Shakesperean tinge: “You knave, you rascal, you eater of broken meats!”
6:40 am
Prepare coffee for myself and my wife, a routine that has been ongoing for 33 years. This routine began the first days we met, and she made me some coffee. After sipping what seemed more like tea with coffee grains, I stated, “Amor, you will never need to make coffee again. Let me do it from now on!” (As a Brazilian from São Paulo, I take coffee seriously!)
6:45am
Look at emails to see if there’s anything that requires immediate attention. Most of the executives of the company are abroad in Dubai, Bangkok, and Xi’an. But sometimes get emails from Indonesia, France, and other locales. Serve my wife coffee and sometimes toast in bed. She languishes lazily under the sheets and responds with a short, “Gracias, mi amor.” (My wife is from Mexico City … so we mix Spanish and English. Portuguese only happens when I’m mad or desperate).
6:50 am
Prepare for my first call of the day … brush teeth, etc. (BTW, the etc. is the most important part …).
7:00 am
First call of the day regarding our new Singapore operations. Incredibly, I surprise myself with my acuteness and responsiveness. As a past bohemian … 7 am used to be when I arrived home completely incoherent.
8:00 am
I sit at my sofa in the TV room for five seconds. As luck has it, my 8 am Hong Kong bank call today is cancelled. My dog looks at me with brooding intensity. I look at him in turn. He then starts barking, well maybe not a bark, more like a complaint stating, “How long do I have to wait?” He then tries to swipe my phone from my hand as if saying, “Stop looking at your pet phone and pay attention to your real pet. I cannot wait any longer!” I ask him if he wants to go out, sometimes in English and sometimes in Portuguese. Incredibly, no matter which language, he always responds running, jumping, twirling, and barking around like a mad dog in heat, to which I can only gather that he is saying: “Are you freaking kidding me!”
8:10 am
I go out with my dog who now happily prances around the neighborhood, hoping to find fresh patches of grass to mark his territory and maybe a friend or two. In the meantime, I listen to some politics podcasts or the results of the last game of São Paulo Futebol Clube, my favorite team.
8:45 am
Finally, I can shower and such. Another look at emails and I answer a half dozen. Discuss some household priorities with my wife and leave for work.
9:15 am
Go to work … (OK. I’m lying. I usually leave closer to 9:30ish and get to work at 10 am since I can’t resist doing the New York Times crossword first.)
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Time to start deciding on what work should take priority. I discuss all items with my team. Of course, anyone looking from the outside would think I am mad as a hatter since they would see me talking to myself. As a solo GC, I am a team of one. However, I do meet with my HR manager since I am also global head of HR. We look at everything we need to do and agree that if we can do 10 percent today, that will be quite an accomplishment. More calls.
12:00 pm – 1:15ish pm
Lunch sometimes alone, sometimes with managers, sometimes with CFO or the COO (if visiting) and sometimes at an ACC lunch seminar or event! (After 16 years, still getting accustomed to Texan early lunch.)
1:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Draft documents, call outside counsel, resolve some trade matters with our compliance officer, negotiate clauses with SLB or Baker Hughes, look at insurance matters, and more calls with stakeholders in Azerbaijan and Dubai, and even some US matters. Put on my many hats of HR, legal, risk management, compliance, and sometimes just common-sense business.
6:30 pm
Leave the office to go home. No cocktails this evening. Hopefully no late calls tonight. Call my daughter or my son to see how they are.
7:00 pm
Have dinner with my wife. Maybe a glass of wine or a martini. (We are empty nesters.)
7:30 pm
Finally, I can watch a game with my team in the Brazilian Championship. Have some friends in WhatsApp where we comment about the game. My dog usually enjoys it as well. He loves looking at the ball rolling in the grass.
9:15 pm
Maybe a film or bed or … oh … wait a minute … message in Teams. Sorry, looks like I have a late call tonight … Gotta go!
11:30 pm
In bed. Maybe tomorrow I can go to the club and swim … start reading the New Yorker and some news … ZZZ …
6:30 am (Next day)
Buzz. I curse you Daylight Savings, “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”
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