5.31.10 | New York, NY | Matt Ellis died on May 10, 2010. He was the US Vice President of Colebrook Bosson Saunders, 35 years of age , and about to be married this summer. The six week trajectory of his cancer diagnosis to his untimely death at Memorial Sloan Kettering left me initially numb and dumbfounded; which very quickly morphed into anger and confusion and a huge sense of loss. What happened ? Six weeks ago, he began to lose weight and feel some pain. This lead to a trip to the emergency ward, and I hopped a plane to NY almost immediately after his release from Lenox Hill hospital. We met in a bar near his apartment to discuss the unthinkable: Advanced stage 3 stomach cancer – both inoperable and incurable. There was one option, intense chemotherapy that might, just might, shrink the tumour and make it operable. It offered hope and we clung to it; as he was young, quite fit, and up for the battle of his life. Surely, this is what would be the result and all would end on a positive note.  Right?  Right!

I visited Matt and his fiancé Sarah and soon left the corporate apartment we maintain in New York, they needed space and time to deal with the issues at hand privately. From the sidelines, I watched the two of them bang against the unpadded, rough sawn walls of their emotions and try to make any sense or meaning of this unfolding horror.  There was none, and he bravely forged ahead, jumping back into the office , working on timelines, and running things in that calm and even manner of his. On the second week of chemotherapy , his life abruptly ended.

Colebrook Bosson Saunders, based in London, began a USA game plan around five years ago. Matt came to me and inquired about opportunities with the US expansion and the chance for relocation. I declined him at first, as he was a product designer and we needed a tough minded business type to open New York and the US markets. Later, after some thought, I asked him what he thought he could do for us.  He wasn’t exactly sure, but reckoned he could do a very good job with the launch.  So, with that thorough interview and job description completed, and all the boxes ticked off and checked, we set off for NY with an idea looking for a home. The first few weeks found us wandering about in the freezing cold, setting up meetings to establish ourselves. Soon, we made arrangements with Thompson Contract and set up a few cubicles for ourselves in an E. 23 street showroom. We then engaged Cliff Brown, who got the message out to our client base, and then we were off and running.  In a short period of time, we opened a very nice showroom at the NYDC, and Matt grew into our operations chief.  He became so skilled that I began to defer to him on significant management decisions, and realized that his intuition and business acumen were quite solid and logical. He was, there is no doubt, one of our best managers. Our company was just sold to Herman Miller, and I am sure he would have succeeded quite handily under the new ownership of an industry leader.

New York became his home, he thrived there. It gave him an opportunity and he grasped it and excelled at it. He met his fiancé Sarah there, and she grounded him, allowed him to mature , and became the love of his life. Inexplicably, senselessly, it stopped.  He was kind, generous, loyal, loved life and lived it. It was an honour to have known him and worked with him, and he will have an undying influence on me and my attitude towards life.

Rest in Peace,  Matt.
Peter Bosson – US CEO , Colebrook Bosson Saunders                                                                                   
Peter Bosson is a co-founder of Colebrook Bosson Saunders, a leading manufacturer of ergonomic desk accessories  just purchased by Herman Miller. His firm joins the HMI companies at Neocon this June, launching the new brand.