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In her more than 30-year Silicon Valley career, Annie Berlin has lived the chaotic life of a congressional staffer, done time inside the marcom department of more than one high tech company, been an account supervisor in one of the world’s largest ad agencies, started and ran her own marketing communications business, and decided to build another area of expertise by adding a Masters in Public Health. She used that degree and her considerable people skills to put a brand new children’s hospice on the map. She is as comfortable holding a global conference call as she is holding a newborn, and in both cases, everyone involved comes away from the experience feeling a whole lot better.

It’s her energy, you’ll notice first. Not just her capacity to get more done in an hour than most people do in a long weekend, but it’s the quality of that energy, too. Her spirit is unflagging, and unflappable. No matter what she’s doing, it’s as though her whole being is involved. She’s generous, too. With her time, with her talent, with her world.

In his book, The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell talks about “Connectors,” people who know people and who can bring them together on a regular basis to get things done. He was writing about Annie Berlin.

Annie is one of those rare individuals who not only remembers the names of the people she meets (and she seems to meet just about everyone), she remembers what they do, the names of their children, and who among them needs a referral for a new doctor, high school, college recommendation, and recipe for a dinner party. All of which she can supply in short order. It doesn’t matter whether she’s the co-chair of a charity event (which she is regularly), or running a garage sale, she is a builder of Community, in the finest sense of the word. People seem to coalesce around her for a good cause, for the “love of the game,” or sometimes, simply because she’s there.

Of course, she brings this ability to connect people and what they need to her work. And the effects of her talent are readily evident, from the decades long relationships with her colleagues to the new friends she’s just introduced herself to. Her reputation, for professionalism, for character, for her inclusiveness, precedes her. In short, if you’ve been lucky enough to work with Annie Berlin, it’s something you can’t wait to do again.

Connections that last are built.