Thank you. It was a mix on working on impactful stuff https://github.com/blog/1880-making-mysql-better-at-github, making an effort to work on more general issues like availability, having a culture that allowed me to be ambitious, and solid mentorship from our CTO.
One thought is the title Director is everywhere nowadays. Not to take anything away from this guy but it could be 2+ rungs below CTO. Probably just 1 though.