Joining the Real Mile High Club

Hundreds of employees scrambled to pick out their favorite furry friend at the June kickoff of Conduit’s “Around the World” competition. Needless to say, the crocodiles, frogs, and tigers disappeared very quickly.

While surprisingly eager men and women grabbed the dolls, Anat Bernstein, our systems analyst, came right up to us and asked if we had an owl. We handed her a little, gray owl and wondered aloud what she had in mind. We had no idea it would turn out to be something so daring!

Thanks to Anat’s belief in thinking big, her mascot, Ollie the Owl, got to fly in an F-16 fighter jet! He’s now part of a select club who know what it feels like to fly at altitudes of 30,000 feet and speeds of over 1,000 mph.

As soon as Anat got the photo of Ollie in the F-16, she ran to our office to show it to us. But before she even let us take a peek at the picture, she insisted on explaining how, when, and where the photo was taken. She wanted to make sure we understood that it was not Photoshopped.

‘‘I thought it would be cool to take a photo of Ollie on a fighter jet, so I started looking for someone who might be able to help,” explained Anat. She then put her super networking skills to the test.

‘‘Eventually, I managed to find a person who said he knew someone who knew someone who knew a pilot. I don’t even know the name of the person behind the mask, but apparently he liked the mascot so much that he kept it!’’

It is believed that Ollie is still accompanying the pilot on his expeditions in the sky.

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