ACUMEN PERFORMANCE GROUP - Key Persons
Bill Hart is a Founding Partner at Acumen Performance Group. A 20-year Navy SEAL Veteran, Bill offers his clients the benefits of his extensive experience in intelligence operations from multiple deployments across the Middle East, Pacific Rim, Europe, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
A native of the California high desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Bill holds a Master's Degree in General Psychology from Northcentral University. He also served in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003; collaborated with partners from the CIA, FBI, and DIA on intelligence collection efforts in 5 countries; and holds the distinction of being "the only living team guy to retire with zero surgeries after falling off a 40-foot cliff, surviving entanglement in 2 parachutes at 4,000 feet, and narrowly eluding a friendly-fire rocket," among many other misadventures. In the modern business world, teams are often so focused on their product and core offerings, they can often overlook what may be the single toughest business skill to master: effectively leading people and teams. Bill focuses his skills on helping them to do just that.
As Bill puts it, "Because I've had more than a little adversity in my life, I'm fairly good at finding the daylight needed to make progress." It is this focus on success despite brushes with adversity that inspire APG's clients.
"At the end of the day, there are a few hard and fast truths that are always in play, every day of the week, no matter what you happen to be doing. A key concept that helps me get untangled from a parachute 25 seconds before impact is the same concept that helps win at the negotiating table: relax, concentrate, execute," says Bill.
Bill applies this same mindset today in helping APG's clients to reach their goals regardless of the situation or challenges that they have encountered, or may encounter in the future. He finds his own thrills working with clients who turn to APG for services to enable major personal and professional transformation.
"The kind of clients who benefit from our service are not people looking for reassurance or a confidence boost," Bill says. "Our clients rely on us to provide discreet feedback and a no-nonsense perspective on issues that can affect the livelihoods of multiple organizations and entire families. By drawing on principles that have fostered successful outcomes in situations ranging from combat to corporate mergers, our clients frequently experience personal and professional development that they often describe to us as nothing short of life-changing."
Bill prides himself on closely working with a range of clients from the corporate world and professional sports, providing consultation and advisory services for organizations preparing for world championship competitions, grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, and other urgent challenges.
Bill's role on APG engagements is traditionally to confer with clients on developing optimal courses of action to tackle their challenges. "My main function is to distill the complex concepts and principles involved into simple ideas that the client will be able to remember when things get hectic...which is most of the time."
Mark Walker is a Founding Partner at Acumen Performance Group, a service-disabled, Veteran-owned and operated leadership training company. APG prides itself on catalyzing personal and organizational performance, drawing on over 125 collective years of Special Operations experience, and providing clients with a detailed roadmap of how to tackle their biggest personal and professional opportunities and challenges.
Mark's work at the firm includes a heavy focus on day-to-day operations, ranging from management of financial, legal, and contractual obligations to web marketing, in addition to personally advising clients on special projects. Mark holds a BA in English from Auburn University and is currently completing a Masters of Business Administration from National Uivrsity, complementing expertise from his partners in psychology and performance psychology.
Mark had the ethos of service instilled early in him as a military brat, born in Maine but living around the world in a family with a proud tradition in the armed forces. He would go on to serve two decades in uniform himself as a Navy Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewman, serving 7.5 deployments on five continents and serving as part of the initial invasion during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Mark has faced daunting challenges in more than 30 countries across Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia. His many notable career highlights included service on the team running personal security for the President of the United States during the Conference of the Americas.
Mark leverages the sum total of his experiences in helping individuals identify and implement customized strategies for overcoming their obstacles, whether a professional athlete overcoming performance anxiety before a major sporting event, a client seeking to live a healthier lifestyle, or an executive balancing the demands of a major professional promotion while maintaining their commitment to their family life. Thanks to Mark's tailored approach to coaching and consulting, executives have embraced new ways of looking at their challenges by altering their mindset and approach to achieve personal transformations they once thought impossible.
"I have witnessed a lot of personal transformations with clients. Perhaps one of the most impactful for me…we had done some experiential team-building and one of the members really struggled physically with the event. He did some self-reflection and realized that he had to make some lifestyle changes if he wanted to walk his daughter down the aisle and enjoy his future grandchildren. The following year he showed up some 80 lbs. lighter - and in what he called ‘the best shape of his life'…he stood in front of the rest of the attendees and told his story. Afterwards, I heard people say, ‘I want to be the one standing up there next year telling my story.'
For Mark, mindset and approach is what it takes to create these insurmountable changes, and helping clients weave these changes into everyday life is where this former Special Operations combat tested leader thrives.
Navy SEAL corporate team building is one of the best ways to build up your corporate team because US Navy SEALs are among the world's most effective teams. However, that kind of reputation isn't built overnight. To give you everything you need to build up and maintain a team worthy of that kind of reputation, our Navy SEAL inspired corporate leadership training allows for discussions that provide clients with insights and attitudes to maximize results and incorporate real-world examples to illustrate each point.