Yesterday, we met Mr. Weinbrecht, the current Mayor of Cary. We met in a conference room in the Cary Town Hall. My first impression of Mr. Weinbrecht was his cheery aura, which was later confirmed by his affable nature. He is a lithely built man with a peppy way of holding himself.

We started off the meeting with a shake of hands, and then we commenced with the interview. Overall, I noticed that he was partial to using real life examples when answering questions. His view of leadership is that to be a leader, one must be honest. Instead of hiding in the backrooms and then popping out and declaring your intentions, you should be a transparent person and let the populace know about your intentions.

Mr. Weinbrecht mentioned that he never even thought about being involved in politics when he was a child. He was almost pulled into it by his colleagues, he said. “When people told me to run for mayor, I laughed, because I thought it was ridiculous at first.” However, later he developed a deep passion for his job. His favorite part of his job is showing foreign ambassadors around Cary, and his least favorite is black tie events. (Apparently, tuxedos are not exactly on his list of favorite things.)

After the interview, we were invited to view a town council meeting. It started out with officials speaking about what they were doing to improve Cary, and the council commenting or questioning the officials. Afterwards, the council opened the podium to citizens of Cary. There was an improtant issue brought up during the citizens’ hour: buffers for the Cameron Pond community. Many citizens spoke up about their concerns. We departed after the third speaker.

At the end, the CKSAP ambassadors gathered for a quick ending meeting. I am glad to say the CKSAP Local 2009 Program ended on a fine note.

Today, we met Dr. David Yazdani of Cisco Systems. Trim and energetic, he was a very cheerful presence in our group. First, we started off with lunch in the Cisco cafeteria, Building 7. Apparently, there are 12 buildings, in which three include cafeterias, on the Cisco campus. During lunch, Mr. Yazdani gave a short history of Cisco and himself. Born in Iran, Mr. Yazdani grew up in a very well off family. Unfortunately, due to a civil war, he moved to America with only $2000. Afterwards, he joined Cisco and progressed to the position in which he is in today.

After the lunch, we took a tour of two buildings: Building 8 and Building 9. Building 8 was the visitor center building, in which there were high-tech touch screens which explained how Cisco products work and how they are implemented in real life. There was also a video/tele-conference room in which a very interesting Cisco product was used: an extremely HD video screen. The conference table was shaped in a circle cut in half, and the big screens would complete the circle and feel like the other conferencers were right in the room along with you.

Then, we toured Building 9. Building 9 has a childcare center and a workout room, in which there were even coaches to help facilitate your routine. Mr. Yazdani believes that a leader must have energy and must stay fit.

The tour ended back in Building 7 where the interviewed commenced. He believes that leaders have many qualities: ethics/values, good family, friends, and environment, passion for helping others, innovation, a vision, not being easily discouraged, energy, consistency, and heart. He especially mentioned John Chambers, the current CEO of Cisco, as a great leader.  Overall, the interview went extremely smoothly, and we were able to enjoy his company very much.