Dion Manly

“People hate to change, but they love to experiment.”

Dale Dauten, “The Max Strategy”

As Senior Vice President, Operations, Dion leads a talented group of Walker Sandsians that run the agency’s Operations, Software Engineering, IT Infrastructure, and Integration Planning efforts. He looks for opportunities to optimize processes and systems that enhance the agency’s ability to scale quickly. He pursues operational excellence from a variety of perspectives, aiming to balance the intersection of people, process, finance and technology.

Since joining the agency in 2018 as Senior Director, Operations, Dion has led a number of pivotal initiatives. He spearheaded the selection, implementation and launch of a new Enterprise Resource Planning system that brings professional services automation along with finance and accounting. He introduced the Professional Services Maturity Model™ as a framework to assess agency performance, identify improvement initiatives and structure annual business planning efforts.

He also led the research and planning required to develop a process for integrating newly acquired companies into the agency. More recently, Dion has developed a new vision that unifies the Operations and Software Engineering teams and enables them to execute system enhancements more quickly.

Dion’s perspective on Operations has been shaped by his experience across a variety of roles prior to Walker Sands. After interning at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory while earning his degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Irvine, he worked in several industries as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. He subsequently held roles in strategic planning, database management, financial planning & analysis, and operations.

Specialties

• Process Improvement
• Planning & Analysis
• Project Management
• Clarifying
• Cheesecake

Skills

• Continuous Improvement
• Data Analysis
• Research
• DIY Home Improvement
• Personal Finance

Interests

• Gadgets & Technology
• Gardening
• Entrepreneurship
• Guitar
• Egg Nog