“Homecoming” is our new series, in which we tell the stories of Avanade “boomerangs,” employees who left the company for other opportunities before returning. Careers are long and winding, and personal and professional aspirations vary from person to person. It’s natural for people to want to branch out, but wherever you go and whatever you do, there is always a home for you at Avanade.

When Avanade acquired Infusion, a global software engineering, design and digital strategy firm, in 2017, the transaction brought many valuable benefits. One was David Christensen, Infusion’s cloud and infrastructure lead.

Yet, as sometimes happens after a big transition, by February of the following year, David was looking for a new challenge. Infusion and Avanade were primarily focused on the Microsoft platform, and David wanted a chance to broaden his scope. “I wanted to work with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud,” he said.

A year later David, by then head of consulting for a boutique multi-cloud consultancy, got together with a few of his former Avanade colleagues, who encouraged him to return.

The decision was an easy one, he said.

“Being good at multiple clouds is difficult,” he said. “Just knowing enough about Azure to be effective is challenging. I like the fact that Avanade focuses on Microsoft technologies, and for me that means working with Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform. I also have a lot of great relationships with the people who came over as part of the Infusion acquisition, and I really missed working with those folks. And outside of Canada, there’s a whole host of other awesome people I still bump into occasionally and get to work with.”

Today David is the Microsoft Azure Platform Services (MAPS) offering lead for Canada, based in Toronto. His role, a combination of sales support and delivery, gives him the chance to work directly with clients to solve their business challenges. His second time at Avanade has been even better than his first, he says.

“I really enjoyed onboarding, and working with everyone has been awesome,” he said. “I’ve also enjoyed working with some awesome Avanaders that I hadn’t had the chance to speak with before.”

His time away is actually helps him today, he said.

“Though I want to concentrate on Azure, touching the other public clouds was super interesting and has given me new perspectives,” he said. “The company I worked for had a lot of financial services experience, so learning more about that sector was very informative. Also. building a consulting practice including budgeting, profit & loss, recruiting and retainment really gave me a lot of insight to the operations side of consulting.”

With a history of growth that includes acquisitions, Avanade takes its responsibility to those joining the company seriously, working hard to make sure newly acquired employees feel comfortable and at home. Whether it is the first time or the second, Avanade is very glad David is here.