Announcement and Thank You

[Andy Baker]

(I had the opportunity to make this announcement at IRI, and am happy to go into some more detail here on ChiefDelphi.com.)

Dear FIRST community,

With much gratitude and respect to you all, I am very happy to announce that I am leaving my job as Sr. Mechanical Engineer at Delphi Electronics and Safety on September 1st. Mark Koors and I have grown our AndyMark company to the point where I can work full time at AndyMark. We started this company 3 years ago, with our intent of leaving our day jobs at Delphi. Now, that dream is being realized. Mark's departure from Delphi will take place over the next year or two.

We owe a great thanks to you all for this success and my transition. You have been good friends and customers as you have watched us grow as a company. We have debated issues on this website, discussed how our products can be improved, and many of you have tirelessly supported what we are doing. I can’t thank you enough.

Up to this point, we have worked hard to support FRC teams, while being distracted with my responsibilities at Delphi. From this point on, my focus will now be 100% on AndyMark, and that will mean better support and service for FIRST Robotics teams.

AndyMark is also moving into a new home, as we will be tenants at Inventrek Technology Park in Kokomo. Inventrek is a high-tech incubator focused on helping new technology-driven companies realize their potential in developing technology-based initiatives. We move in next week.

Although I will be leaving Delphi, I will continue to be a mentor on the TechnoKats Robotics Team. However, I will not be the lead mentor as I have for the past 8 seasons. We are working on a transition now and my limited responsibilities for team 45 have not been redefined. I would like to thank my TechnoKat teammates, as they have supported us through this whole process. Specifically, I want to thank Mark Koors for being a wonderful teammate and business partner, venturing down this path with me.

Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Mary, for supporting me unconditionally through this process. Without this support, none of this would happen and I would not be in FIRST. My role as husband and father is more important than my role as FIRST mentor and teammate, and I appreciate that she has let me “play with the robots” for so long.

If you are familiar with communicating with me through my Delphi email, you will need to use one of these two addresses to contact me in the future: andybaker45(at)gmail.com or andyb(at)andymark.biz. Also, our mailing address will change to this:

AndyMark, Inc.
700 E. Firmin St.
Suite 114
Kokomo, IN 46902
765-455-1376

Thank you very much,
Andy Baker