It’s not every day that one gets the opportunity to dump a bucket of ice water on the head of a finance chief at a multi-billionaire dollar tech company.
But there I was on a dock in Seattle today holding a bucket of water over the head of Tom Walker, the 6-foot, 3-inch chief financial officer at Tableau Software.
Walker was one of eight CFOs who banded together this afternoon in Fremont for the “Ice Bucket Challenge,” which is raising awareness and money for ALS. As of today, the challenge has raised more than $22.9 million from more than 450,000 new donors.
Others who participated in today’s challenge included Impinj CFO Evan Fein; Zillow CFO Chad Cohen; Zulily CFO Marc Stolzman; Apptio CFO Sean Boyle; ExtraHop CFO Palvi Mehta; Rightside CFO Tracy Knox; and Julep CEO Spencer Lee.
But this challenge had a bit of a twist. After the ice water was dumped on their heads, they took it a bit further and jumped into Lake Union. (Not sure which is more scary, actually).
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella participated in the challenge last week, picking Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and Google’s Larry Page to participate. Bezos jumped into the mix with a funny comedy routine, before picking some of heroes from Star Trek.
Even GeekWire founder Todd Bishop took the plunge earlier today, after U.S. Chief Information Officer Steve VanRoekel selected him to participate.
Yes, you may be wondering why yours truly hasn’t been soaked. Well, as of this afternoon, the challenge is officially on. (Thanks, Todd). Let’s just say the 450 folks coming out to GeekWire Sounders Day on Wednesday afternoon will have something fun to witness!
Meanwhile, here’s a look at the action today with the CFOs.
