The voice, coffees, beard, and zingers – an end of an era.
With heavy hearts, we bid farewell to our beloved Daniel Faris, who has decided to make a move back to Auckland.
Starting in 2015 – as a fresh face non-bearded Programme Director – Dan quickly grew into an integral member of the Locus team. His way with words, ability to learn fast, and synthesise complex situations carved the path to the CEO role acting as the face (and voice) of Locus.
From team members to clients, everyone got to experience and get to know the wonderful man that is Daniel Faris.
So here are a few snippets and memories we like to share with you all.
Time to reflect
Dan sure has made a lasting impression with the team, and we had some good laughs looking back. There are so many different attributes and moments that make Dan such a lovable and essential member of the Locus family.
First and foremost, he is a man with a great voice or the “ultimate radio voice”. Silky smooth and calming are only two ways to explain the tone of Dan’s voice, and it is a sound that will be greatly missed in the studio.
Accompanying Dan’s legendary voice is his trademark beard that over time has taken on a life of its own. This well maintained and groomed specimen will forever be engrained in the Locus history and will be spoken about for years to come.
Stories to tell
From the classic chats over a coffee, those personal times between work to some more outrageous events, we all shared some great moments with Dan. Some of these stories will remain on lock-down within the Locus family but here some flashbacks that made us giggle:
- As a member of the team went to say goodbye at the end of their first interview, they went in for a farewell handshake. However, Dan went in with his signature fist bump.
- Unwrapping the most excellent work (and possibly one of the best) Christmas presents from Dan at the Locus Christmas party – a Star Wars Battle Drone.
- Dan retelling the story of his son having to poop in a MacDonalds Happy Meal box (which he got caught out on)
- Dan channelling his inner Possum Bourne and showing his rally driver skills and while boosting it on the backroads to Carolines.
A man of many talents
Just like Liam Nelson from the movie Taken, Mr Faris is a man with a very particular set of skills. Although not as frightening as Mr Nelson’s skills, Dan’s talents are going to be sorely missed.
One such skill being blessed with the gift of the gab and has a real eloquence with words. Dan can hold his own in any conversation as well as talk himself out of sticky situations.
Combine that with incredible knowledge in many different areas, and you have a master at hand. His knowledge not only includes high-level thinking but it also amusingly contains a fast amount of odd tidbits of obscure facts. The best way to descript Dan and his expertise is that he is a “Bearded walking encyclopedia”.
Moreover, the reason why anyone who meets him gets to experience the above is that Dan is a genuine people person. He truly connects and invests in the people around him, on a professional and personal level. It makes for excellent team dynamics.
“Let’s go have a coffee and kick start the day.”
Creature of habit
Over time Dan’s habits in the studio have become a mainstay within the studio.
One habit is his need for coffee. In the most affectionate way possible, Dan is a coffee snob. Not being one to follow trends, he tends to orders the less popular styles (Piccolo being the coffee of choice) and always want real cream in his order.
One of the teams favourite Dan habits that have manifested due to his famous beard is the twisting of his moustache. This stroking of his moustache has become one of those habits that makes an appearance whenever Dan is deep in thought and has been likened to that of a villain stroking a cat.
Zingers
Being a Dad, Dan is also known for his words of wisdom and his cracking one-liners – these will be missed by all. A couple of the team’s favourites include
- “Starter for 10.”
- “One moment caller.”
- “Brass tacks.”
- “First cab off the rank.”
- “Talking turkey.”
- “Get into the weeds on this one.”
- “Let’s go have a coffee and kick start the day.”
- “Revert”
Missing Dan already
Ultimately the team at Locus are going to miss Dan and the Dan size void that he leaves behind. We all are going to miss his bottomless positivity and enthusiasm for the people around him, the worlds warmest welcomes every morning when he comes in, his confidence in our ability as a team, the high-quality sounding board that we can rely on blindly and most of all we are going miss Dan.
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