Benjamin Hoyt Walker
Professional & Personal Profile
Thanks for visiting my site which includes my professional experience, personal interests, and occasional musings about both.
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About me
I'm a proud husband, father, son, and uncle. Above all else, I believe I was put on this earth to be the very best father I can be to my two beloved sons. Throughout the challenges and rewards of my 30 year career, even when consumed by 60-hour work weeks and endless global travel, nothing ever matters more than family.
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I'm currently the Chief Operating Officer at Glider AI, Inc., a Software as a Service (SaaS) company providing skill competency screening tools for talent acquisition and learning teams. I'm an analytical, deliberate, calm, and empathetic leader focused on revenue expansion and operational excellence so the CEO and Co-Founder can remain focused on our corporate and product strategy. I deliver both top-line growth through business development accountability and improved cash flow and profitability through demonstrable operational improvements.
My greatest strength is bringing order to chaos in both startup and large organizations through a systematic approach to problem solving and continuous improvement. As I've risen from an individual contributor, to a manager, to a functional lead, to a corporate executive I'm most proud of the people I've mentored over the years who are now leaders themselves. My career began in Big Five consulting at Price Waterhouse. I later gravitated to technology, enthralled by the blend of art and science required to make great software. I've been directly responsible for nearly every business function over the years, enabling a 360-degree perspective of a corporation.
I regularly speak at conferences focused on technology and the contingent workforce, an area of specialization for the last 20 years. I've participated in numerous podcasts and webinars, and written articles for several publications.
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"Seek first to understand, then to be understood"
I support many non-profits and philanthropic causes through leadership and advisory positions, volunteerism, and financial contributions. I'm a two-time New York marathon finisher, a youth soccer coach, a Red Sox fan, a creative writing hobbyist, a family historian, and a kidney donor.
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I live my life mindful of a passage from John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden that I first read in college.
"A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?"
CORE COMPETENCIES
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
I've led B2B sales, marketing, and account management teams. I enable top- and bottom-line growth through efficient sales and account management enablement and a customer-centric focus that ensures sales or marketing messaging are created through the eyes of the prospective customer. It's not about clarity of what you're selling, it's about clarity of what they're buying, what problems need to be solved, and how your product or service uniquely solves them. If you can't name three solution differentiators and confidently stand behind them, you might as well pack it up.
CUSTOMER SUCCESS
I've been in customer-facing roles as an individual contributor, manager, and executive. Customer-centricity isn't about always saying yes or the customer always being right. It's about understanding what they need, what's driving those needs, and articulating the best ways to accomplish their objectives with the time and resources available. It's about candor and integrity. Enterprise customers want to be better informed and know about better ways to achieve their objective. In virtually any business-to-business scenario customer advocacy is nuanced, consultative, and dynamic.
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Starting my career in a Big Five management consultancy instilled in me the importance of methodology, scalability, and repeatability. Cookie cutter? Never. Deliberate and purposeful? Always. Any operational improvement initiative can apply the same formula. Current state discovery, root cause analysis, requirements definition, alternative analysis, solution design, and rollout. In all of my operational leadership roles I apply some form of this method to improve quality and efficiency, and decrease cost and waste.
