Meet Walt Carter
I am a keynote speaker, author, father, husband, grandfather, and human potential catalyst. My mission is to help leaders overcome resistance, embrace change, and unlock their potential so they can build high-performing teams and create lasting impact.
What I Believe
After more than 36 years leading award-winning transformations in both technology and operations, I’ve learned that real change begins with people, not processes or platforms. Leaders who understand how to activate their teams through purpose, clarity, and trust are the ones who make the biggest impact.
I’ve spent my entire career helping organizations navigate massive change, and succeed because of it. From multi-billion-dollar enterprises to fast-moving startups, I’ve had a front-row seat to what drives cultural change, team alignment, and sustainable results.
Now, I bring those hard-earned insights to the stage, equipping leaders to unlock their full potential and lead lasting transformation in their companies and their lives.
My Story
I’ve been running my own private leadership lab for decades, working shoulder-to-shoulder with executives, managers, and frontline teams through times of tremendous change.
In my career, I’ve served in critical technology leadership roles for major companies like Fidelity, Gannett, BDM, TRW, and Ajilon Consulting. I’ve held C-suite titles including COO, CIO, and CMO, and Chief Digital Officer and today I serve as the President and Chief Operating Officer at THG Advisors, the strategy division of Alba International Services.
But titles aside, what truly drives me is unlocking human potential, helping people move beyond resistance, own their role in change, and achieve something remarkable together.
I’ve spent years building and refining a simple framework that helps leaders drive clarity, gain commitment, and align their people toward a shared vision. Whether I’m speaking to a room of 5, 50 or 5,000, I give audiences practical tools and powerful stories that help them step up, lead with courage, and build cultures of resilience and results.
Richard Hicks, CEO Inspiredu
“I've collaborated with Walt for a number of years and it is an honor to highly recommend my colleague and friend for his stellar leadership and talent for moderating discussions. Walt displays an ability that is rarely seen when engaging powerhouse conversations. He pours his leadership ability into his moderating and brings out the best in having important discussions. Also, Walt's ability to share his wisdom and experiences with other colleagues allows him to connect more so that his moderating panels are more like friends catching up and discussing the issues/solutions together rather than trying to stick to a script. I will continue to call on Walt so that we can continue to amplify our panel discussions, and he's just the person to do it.”
Biography
With more than twenty-five years in technology leadership roles, Walt is a recognized expert in change leadership, value delivery, and technology innovation.
Currently advising a number of large enterprise firms as a board advisor and strategic advisor in his role and President and COO at THG Advisors, Walt is working with leaders to implement game-changing technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. Walt served for several years as Chief Digital Officer and CIO at Homestar Financial Services where he completed a digital transformation and helped drive expansion from thirteen states to forty-six. Before that, Walt as CIO and CMO, and his teams implemented technology changes for Primary Capital Mortgage to drive 205% growth in origination volume in less than two years. At Generation Mortgage received accolades from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger's, Bloomberg and MarketWatch for innovative use of technology as a key differentiator for the company and he was named CIO of the Year by the Georgia CIO chapter of Inspire CIO Group.
Walt is adept at working through complex business challenges and has successfully implemented many enterprise-wide packaged software solutions for companies with global footprints. Walt is a frequent speaker to professional groups on the topics of change leadership and using culture as a lever for optimization. His signature talk called “Love them and THEN Lead them” frequently gets tears flowing and standing ovations.
After earning a BS in Physics from Guilford College, he began his career as a technical officer in the US Air Force supporting nuclear weapons systems and serving in very challenging Cold War assignments as a logistics planner and strategist while earning an MSA in Public and Private Administration. Since then, he has served in a variety of technology leadership roles with companies such as Fidelity, Gannett, BDM, TRW, and Ajilon Consulting. While at TRW, he won the President's Award for his leadership on their largest commercial project. Walt has enjoyed learning and coaching inside organizations as a Chief Operating Officer, Chief Information Officer and as a Chief Marketing Officer. One of the first to hold the Chief Digital Officer title, he brings a “team sports” philosophy to every role.
In 2020 Walt was named to the Constellation Research “Business Transformation 150” – a global list recognizing transformational leadership in his role at HOMESTAR. His first book on change leadership, “We Can’t Stay Here!” is an international best seller and his new book on leadership systems titled “Stop Driving Behind Idiots”, was published in May of 2025.
