I got an email from Neal Bruce yesterday saying that he would be leaving Monster and moving on to bigger and better things.

For those of you who have not met Neal, he has been Monster's public face to the industry.

I'm not sure how much - or even if - Neal's departure will affect Monster's bottom line, but it's a big loss for the company nevertheless.  He did a great job of humanizing what had become a huge faceless organization. 

Before Neal, Monster was effectively estranged from it's customer base, who only heard from the company's reps when it was time to renew their packages at ever-increasing prices.  Neal provided an outlet - someone in management who had actually done recruiting himself, went to industry events and had a personal relationship with many of the bloggers, writers and leaders in the industry.

It's looking like Neal may start to blog.  I hope that he does, beause I would like to hear more from him, whatever he decides to do next.

For Monster's part, I hope that they recognize that Neal's departure is leaving them with a big hole.

I am hopeful.

Sal Iannuzzi, Monster's CEO, came out to ERE Expo last week, and he had the chance to see up close and personal what the buzz of the industry is.  I have not seen someone anywhere close to that level of executive management come to an industry event since Jeff Taylor.

I am sure that there are plenty of people inside of Monster that think that Sal has better things to do then spend time at industry events, but I disagree.  Whether it is at ERE Expo or other events in the industry, Monster needs to engage and be more responsive to its customers, and Sal need to hear from his customers first-hand.