sub format_name_for_AD {
	my $empl_name = shift;			# $empl_name has the form "Last, First"

	my ($last, $first) = $empl_name=~/^([^,]+), (.+)/ or return undef;
	
	return uc(substr($first, 0, 1)) . ucfirst($last);
}

for ('Smith, John', 'Wall, Larry', 'Perlis, Alan', 'Ritchie, Dennis') {
	print format_name_for_AD($_), "\n";
}