Walt Shepard is a principal at BCE Consulting and is deputy of the firm’s Healthcare & Consumer division. For 12 years Walt has worked across a range of industries developing growth strategies by helping companies better understand their customers’ needs and whitespace opportunities in the markets they serve.

Prior to joining BCE, Walt was responsible for corporate research and customer strategy at L.L.Bean, an IR 500 Top-35 retailer. In this position Walt built and maintained L.L.Bean’s omnichannel voice-of-customer program, leveraging customer feedback to improve customer experience across channels and to drive continuous improvement in the product development process. Additionally, Walt led the development of L.L.Bean’s overall customer strategy, leveraging brand and customer insights to guide the company’s customer acquisition efforts and go-to-market process.

Before joining L.L.Bean, Walt was an engagement manager at The Beacon Group, delivering organic and inorganic growth strategies on behalf of Fortune 500 companies across the healthcare, technology, and defense industries. In this capacity Walt helped clients define their product and service value propositions, business plans, go-to-market strategies, and customer acquisition strategies in more than 70 markets around the world.

Walt holds a BA in Economics from Bowdoin College, where he graduated as an academic All-American in Nordic skiing. Walt remains active in the ski community, having served on the boards of the U.S. Biathlon Team and the New England Nordic Ski Association.