I did nothing for the first week except email everyone to say I looked forward to meeting them all sooner than later, hang out with the management team during the day, and cram financial, operational and market data in the evenings.

I’ll introduce you to the main characters here, all in one go for your easy reference.

Sarah Wilde is the CFO, a Brit. She joined Attenzi shortly after Lorenz Capital took over having come to the attention of another CFO Lorenz had placed previously.

Product Development is led by Georgio Moro; an Italian who doesn’t particularly like football (as in soccer). He also insists that stereotypes are dangerous. He joined Attenzi three years ago having been a competitor’s product development Number 2.

You’ve met Marcus. Chief Operating Officer. Very obviously 6 foot 7. He’s worked his way up through the ranks since 1998 with a reputation for making things happen on time and to budget.

Michelle Yin, Chinese American, B-school grad and environmental campaigner, is the latest Chief Marketing Office. Recruited from the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sector in May 2010, just six months before me, Michelle exudes professional confidence – which is just as well as there have been four CMOs in the past five years!

Bob Babcock (known as BB) heads up Sales and reports into Michelle. “I was born to work in sales” is one of the first things he said to me.

Yvonne Allen heads up Public Relations. Despite her relative youth amongst the management team, Yvonne is the longest served having joined the company directly from university and then working her way up through HR, marketing and PR roles. As she’s a Brit I thought she’d get sarcasm. She doesn’t.

John Jeffries heads up IT. A Canadian, a cyclist and hybrid car aficionado.

Tom Douglas heads up HR. American. 3 years with the company. Keeps himself to himself but has a habit I’ve noticed of saying just the right things at just the right time.

And then of course there’s William Strait, Rhodes Scholar, serial entrepreneur, notorious namedropper, jazz lover and Chairman of the Board.

So there you have nine of the nearly 2600 strong Attenzi team. I should clarify that I value the contribution everyone has made, and hope they will appreciate that writing a story featuring 2600 characters would have been a challenge to write and an impossibility to read!