Don Ward

Don Ward Email and Phone Number

Customer Success & Tech Field Operations Leader | Servant Leader | PMF Strategy & Management @ Gradient Cyber
Don Ward's Location
Greater Houston, United States, United States
Don Ward's Contact Details
About Don Ward

Progressive 25 year IT/OT networking and cyber security services and product platform career spanning individual contributor through upper management roles. Built and led top industry performing teams in Customer Success, Sales Engineering, Sales, Business Development, Product Planning, Professional Services, and Training Certifications. Non-stop student, quickly assimilating new technologies and teams that establish high performance ‘A’ player culture. I am a grateful and humble customer focused leader with strong business/financial, analytical, communication, and collaboration skills.

Don Ward's Current Company Details
Gradient Cyber

Gradient Cyber

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Customer Success & Tech Field Operations Leader | Servant Leader | PMF Strategy & Management
Don Ward Work Experience Details
  • Gradient Cyber
    Chief Customer Success Officer
    Gradient Cyber Aug 2023 - Present
    Southlake, Texas, Us
    Gradient Cyber is a differentiating leader in Managed XDR platform solutions, addressing underserved mid market clients across all verticals. We provide an end to end product and services solution offering clients & partners full turn-key, co-managed, or self-service options for addressing 'any' network and endpoint cybersecurity detection, protection, IR, and reporting objectives. We integrate efficiently and effectively with customer and partner cybersecurity tech stack solutions, providing differentiating 24/7 value.
  • Mission Secure
    Chief Revenue & Services Officer
    Mission Secure Jan 2023 - May 2023
    Charlottesville, Virginia, Us
    Took on global sales role in addition to services leadership as company streamlines for efficiency during challenging PMF and customer budget cycles.
  • Mission Secure
    Senior Vice President, Global Services
    Mission Secure Aug 2019 - Dec 2022
    Charlottesville, Virginia, Us
    Senior Executive Management team member responsible for all pre and post sales product and services operations, product & services strategy, deployment & pricing, customer success, partner and customer training & enablement, corporate operations & onboarding.Mission Secure stops OT cyber threats head-on, protecting OT networks and safeguarding operations - keeping customers’ critical operations up and running and safe from disruption.Mission Secure’s offerings include: Full 24/7 Managed OT Security as a Service (SaaS) offerings, IT/OT Cyber Risk Assessments with detailed network analyses, Red Teaming and non-intrusive/safe Penetration Testing, an OT Cybersecurity Platform providing OT/ICS/IOT Network and Asset Visibility, Network Segmentation/Protections, Signal-Integrity Monitoring at Purdue Model Level 0, and Managed Services delivering 24/7 IT/OT Network Monitoring, Incident Response & Remediation (IRR).
  • Dee Dub Asset Management
    Founder, Ceo, Professional Trader, And Tech Industry Consultant
    Dee Dub Asset Management Jun 2012 - Jul 2021
    Independent Professional Trader in Equities, Options, Futures, and Forex. Developed IT quantitative tools and strategies to back-test both discretionary and algorithmic trading strategies.Served as executive IT & organizational consultant in various corporate projects, inclusive of public/private/hybrid Cloud and SaaS support infrastructure, organizational best practices for building high-skill set support/success teams, and M&A integration of pre & post sales technical teams to drive CSAT and loyalty.
  • Arista Networks
    Senior Account Executive Consultant
    Arista Networks Feb 2019 - Jul 2019
    Santa Clara, California, Us
    Arista Networks is a leader in building scalable, high-performance and ultra-low latency cloud networks with low power consumption and a small footprint for modern datacenter and campus environments.
  • Hp (Enterprise Security Products Group)
    Senior Director, Technical Field Operations
    Hp (Enterprise Security Products Group) Apr 2010 - Feb 2012
    Houston, Texas, Us
    HP acquired 3Com in 2010 for $2.7B. Led and directed Global Security Product operations for Customer Success & Experience for over 10,000 top Enterprise, Service Provider, Government, and K-12/Hi-Ed customers.
  • 3Com
    Vice President, Technical Field Operations
    3Com Jan 2005 - Apr 2010
    Marlborough, Ma, Us
    TippingPoint was acquired by 3Com in January 2005 for $442 million and operated as a standalone division of 3Com with specific revenue and P&L targets. Led and directed Global Operations for Customer Success, inclusive of Pre and Post Sales Engineering, Support Services, and Professional Services.
  • Tippingpoint
    Senior Director,Technical Field Operations
    Tippingpoint Jan 2004 - Jan 2005
    TippingPoint took off from Pre-Revenue in late 2003 to attaining $32 million in fiscal 2004. During this time of extreme growth, in addition to managing and growing the Sales Engineering Team, I led all Support Services and Technical Training Team functions. Matured Technical Assistance Center (TAC) processes, adding to contact center infrastructure, created detailed processes, grew support team, and massively reduced call wait times, email response times, and time to resolution on support tickets/cases.
  • Tippingpoint
    Vice President, Higher Education Sales & Marketing
    Tippingpoint Jun 2003 - Jan 2004
    During this Pre-Revenue period for the company, was tasked by CEO/Founder John McHale to take on a specialized role with primary focus on landing one or more key strategic partners to scale our number one customer sales vertical at the time (Higher Education). Landed and signed an Enterprise Reseller Agreement with Dell that added a quarterly revenue run-rate ($1-1.5m) going into Fiscal 2004. Spent focused team effort enabling their 100+ person Higher Ed Sales Teams (inside & outside sales) with sales training, ROI documents and PowerPoint "Pitch" decks.
  • Tippingpoint
    Director, Systems/Sales Engineering
    Tippingpoint Jun 2002 - Jun 2003
    Hired and managed SE Team from Employee #1. Spent considerable time taking alpha and beta level products to customer sites for beta and POC testing, working closely with TippingPoint Development Team for continued improved functionality. Responded to RFI/RFPs and competitive presentation requests from the field. Launched and refreshed SE field tools (demo kits, KB, new-hire on-board training).
  • Toplayer Networks
    North American Se Team Lead
    Toplayer Networks Sep 2001 - May 2002
    Pre and Post Sales Systems Engineering Team Lead. Toplayer’s primary focus was on an appliance for load balancing application packet flows to servers, firewalls (FW), and intrusion detection systems (IDS). Other advanced features included IP quality of service (QOS), traffic shaping (TS), and distributed denial of service (DDOS) mitigation features.
  • Metera Networks
    Director, Business Development
    Metera Networks Nov 2000 - Jun 2001
    Led small team of BD Account Managers and Technical Marketing Specialists in the Metro Optical Ethernet/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) space. Traveled North America meeting with prospective large ILEC/CLEC Service Providers to vet out product planning features, respond to RFI/RFPs, and doing competitive market/segmentation analysis. Partnered with both Juniper and Cisco to perform MPLS Interoperability Testing. This was a Pre-Revenue company of which eventually filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
  • Vectris Communications
    Vice President, Business Development
    Vectris Communications Aug 2000 - Nov 2000
    Led small team of BD Account Managers and Program Managers to seek industry partnerships/alliances in the Broadband DSL space. Vectris was a Cisco Powered Network Provider, rolling out managed broadband Internet DSL services to retail and commercial customers throughout the Texas and the Central US. Signed major National Reseller Agreements with AT&T Broadband Services and Rhythms. This was a Pre-Revenue company, and based on market timing and the up-take of Broadband Cable versus DSL, the company filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
  • Cisco Systems
    Systems Engineer (Seii) -> Consulting Se(Seiv) -> Multiservices Major Account Manager (Mam)
    Cisco Systems Apr 1994 - Aug 2000
    San Jose, Ca, Us
    Received Sales Engineering Excellence Award for North America from John Chambers in 1996. Progressed from entry-level Systems Engineer (SEII) to the highest promote-able ranking (SEIV) - CCIE #1571 Routing & Switching. Served instrumental roles in winning competitively held accounts from Alcatel/Ascend/Xylan, Bay/Wellfleet/Nortel, Cabletron, 3Com, Fore, and IBM. Served as Technical lead on L2/3 routed network designs, multi-service FR/ATM WAN/MPLS backbone network designs, High Availability Co-location Internet Commerce Designs, and VPN Security Solutions. Served as SE Virtual Team (SEVT) Lead, driving requirements and direction for routing, switching, and multi-service product lines.Served as Multi-services technical-sales-overlay (Austin - $60m goal, San Antonio - $30M goal). Achieved 201% of sales quota (#1 Multi-service MAM in Sales Operation, #2 in company). Served as technical project lead on the Texan 2000 RFO (statewide MPLS backbone – $30+m Cisco products), and green-field IXC and NSP CLEC market for multi-service offerings in Central and South Texas.

Don Ward Skills

Security Cloud Computing Solution Selling Network Security Go To Market Strategy Customer Advocacy Start Ups Technical Support Network Design Network Engineering Sales Operations Systems Engineering Technical Trainers Training Delivery Product Planning Enterprise Software Saas Management Professional Services Computer Security Leadership Routing Data Center Virtualization Information Security Pre Sales Networking Integration Network Architecture Firewalls

Don Ward Education Details

  • Texas A&M University
    Texas A&M University
    Minor In Telecommunications

Frequently Asked Questions about Don Ward

What company does Don Ward work for?

Don Ward works for Gradient Cyber

What is Don Ward's role at the current company?

Don Ward's current role is Customer Success & Tech Field Operations Leader | Servant Leader | PMF Strategy & Management.

What is Don Ward's email address?

Don Ward's email address is dw****@****ure.com

What is Don Ward's direct phone number?

Don Ward's direct phone number is +151275*****

What schools did Don Ward attend?

Don Ward attended Texas A&m University.

What skills is Don Ward known for?

Don Ward has skills like Security, Cloud Computing, Solution Selling, Network Security, Go To Market Strategy, Customer Advocacy, Start Ups, Technical Support, Network Design, Network Engineering, Sales Operations, Systems Engineering.

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