🎧 From Historian to Infrastructure: The OSIsoft Story with Richard Beeson

Some conversations aren’t just interviews; they’re tributes.

On True North, I sat down with Richard Beeson, former CTO of OSIsoft, for an honest talk about the company — and the man — that changed both our lives: Pat Kennedy.

Richard spent 32 years at OSIsoft. Before AVEVA, OSIsoft quietly built the nervous system of industry with the PI System,  and it still runs the world’s plants today.

A few stories we touch, without giving it all away:

• 🏢 The dentist's office in San Leandro that set PI’s culture in motion
• 🧩 Why AF didn’t originally mean “Asset Framework”
• ☎️ The rule about answering the phone before the 3rd ring 
• 💾 How PI v1 was shipped… 
• 🕰️ The moment Pat realized people valued history more than the project itself
• 🔁 The quiet design decision that made PI 3 a runaway success
• 🔓 Pat’s licensing ethos

It’s a candid conversation and a small tribute to a founder who built for engineers first and built something that kept working.