Walter Shepard

Walt Shepard is a principal at BCE Consulting and is deputy of the firm’s Healthcare & Consumer division.  Additionally, Walt leads some of the firm’s Private Equity client relationships.  For nine years Walt has worked across a variety of industries developing growth strategies by helping companies better understand the needs of their customers and whitespace opportunities in the markets they serve.  Most recently, Walt led a group of teams responsible for all corporate research and customer strategy at L.L.Bean, an IR 500 Top-35 retailer.  In this position Walt was responsible for developing and maintaining L.L.Bean’s omnichannel voice-of-customer program, leveraging customer feedback to improve the 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, and was responsible for developing brand and customer insights to guide customer acquisition efforts and the company’s go-to-market process.

Before joining L.L.Bean, Walt was a client and 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, the New England Nordic Ski Association, and the Outdoor Sport Institute.