"A positive culture fuels performance and satisfaction."
Aileen Allkins, serving as the President and Chief Executive Officer of TeKnowledge, personifies the organization’s core mission of fostering accelerated progress and ensuring a secure future. Her leadership is characterized by a deep-rooted commitment to innovation, heightened customer satisfaction, and unparalleled operational excellence.
Throughout her distinguished career, Aileen has made significant impacts, notably during her transformative tenure at Microsoft, where she successfully led a global team of over 25,000, markedly boosting customer service and enterprise support.
Prior to her achievements at Microsoft, Aileen also held key leadership positions at HP, where she was instrumental in driving customer experience strategies and operational improvements, further honing her skills in managing large-scale teams and complex digital transformations.
In her role at TeKnowledge, Aileen’s strategic vision is closely aligned with TeKnowledge’s core values, steering the company towards achieving its goals in the digital landscape. Her guidance ensures that TeKnowledge stands as a trusted partner for businesses and governments seeking to overcome the challenges of digital transformation.
With Aileen at the helm, TeKnowledge continues to forge a path of innovation and growth, making significant contributions to the digital world.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Aileen Allkins: I’m Aileen Allkins, President and CEO of TeKnowledge, a company at the forefront of digital transformation, cybersecurity, and technical skilling.
My background spans significant leadership roles across global tech giants, where I’ve been privileged to drive customer success and innovation, and have led a global team of over 25,000.
At TeKnowledge, we stand as the transformative catalyst for digital evolution, providing governments and global enterprises with unparalleled cybersecurity services, advanced technical skilling, and enterprise technical services at scale.
We’re dedicated to accelerating progress and securing futures by empowering organizations to navigate the complexities of the digital landscape with confidence.
My journey in the tech industry has been deeply rewarding, marked by roles that have allowed me to influence and innovate within some of the world’s leading technology companies, including Microsoft and HP.
My experience spans a broad spectrum of responsibilities, from customer success to spearheading global service and support teams. This diverse background has equipped me with a unique perspective on the digital challenges and opportunities facing businesses today.
At Microsoft, I was instrumental in enhancing customer and partner satisfaction, operational efficiency, and revenue growth within their services division. At HP, my leadership in the Enterprise Services team was pivotal in driving customer engagement and service excellence.
These experiences have been fundamental in shaping my approach to leadership at TeKnowledge, where we’re committed to empowering organizations through transformative technology solutions.
How would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Aileen Allkins: At TeKnowledge, we’re acutely aware of the critical challenges businesses face today, particularly in bridging the tech talent gap and expediting digital imperatives. Our approach is comprehensive, designed to address these issues head-on.
We provide governments and enterprises worldwide with a holistic suite of services tailored to bolster cybersecurity defenses, cultivate essential technical skills, and deliver expert technical managed services at scale.
This integrated strategy enables us to streamline and accelerate digital strategies for our clients, ensuring they’re not just competitive but leading in their respective fields.
What truly sets us apart is our commitment to tackling the tech talent gap, a pervasive issue that threatens to slow the pace of digital innovation. By offering advanced technical skilling and capacity-building programs, we’re not only enhancing our clients’ immediate capabilities but also contributing to the development of the broader tech ecosystem.
This focus on empowerment through education and skills development, combined with our end-to-end cybersecurity and digital transformation services, makes TeKnowledge a distinct partner for organizations looking to secure their digital futures and achieve their strategic imperatives more quickly and effectively.
Our dedication extends to our capability to swiftly scale and incorporate individuals into business, adhere to any specified timeframe, elevate employees from level 1 to level 3 in customer support, deliver managed services more efficiently, and achieve quicker outcomes than our competitors.
In the past year, what is the greatest business achievement you’d like to celebrate with your team? Please share the details of that success.
Aileen Allkins: We are officially announcing our new expansion this week, so it will be the most celebrated achievement to date. I am proud to share the strategic unification of Cytek Security, Tek Experts, and Elev8 under the TeKnowledge brand. This move has significantly enhanced our service offerings, enabling us to provide even more value to our clients.
Celebrating this milestone, we’ve seen a tangible impact in how we deliver solutions, with an increase in client satisfaction and market reach that underscores our mission’s success.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Looking forward, the surge in online business operations presents both unprecedented opportunities and challenges. We anticipate further growth in B2B and B2C online interactions, remote work, and digital services.
TeKnowledge is capitalizing on this trend by expanding our cybersecurity and technical skilling services to address the increasing demand for secure, robust digital platforms and skilled tech professionals.
Our focus is on enabling our clients to thrive in this digital tsunami, transforming potential hurdles into stepping stones for innovation and growth.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Aileen Allkins: The real challenge in today’s business environment is navigating the rapidly evolving technology landscape while managing the global tech talent gap.
The pace at which new technologies are introduced and adopted has accelerated, yet companies struggle to find skilled professionals to leverage these technologies effectively — the global shortage of tech talent exceeds 85 million. Addressing this gap is critical for sustained growth and innovation.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Aileen Allkins: One often underestimated aspect of running a company is the importance of corporate culture in driving success. A positive, empowering culture can significantly enhance team performance and job satisfaction.
For example, at TeKnowledge, fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation has been pivotal in attracting and retaining top talent, enabling us to stay ahead of industry trends and deliver exceptional value to our clients.
What does “success” in 2024 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Aileen Allkins: For me, “success” in 2024 is twofold: it’s about leading TeKnowledge to new heights in digital transformation and cybersecurity, making a tangible difference in the lives of our clients and their customers.
Second, success means expanding our global footprint, bridging the tech talent gap, and contributing to a safer, more innovative digital future. It’s about creating lasting impacts that resonate beyond our immediate surroundings.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Aileen Allkins for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
