Tierney Leadership

I started with Tierney in 1994 as a sales rep, and thinking back on those years, I recognize now that I was always willing to do a lot for this company. My first (failed) sales pitch was to an elementary school student council, I ran pushing an enormous printer through the University of Minnesota campus in the heat of July, I once spent a whole day working while covering my front lip because I had cracked a tooth on my way to a sales pitch, and I spent many days sweating straight through my suit. These stories make me laugh now, and also realize that I would have never met my tough days at Tierney if I didn’t care about our work, feel motivated by my fellow Tierney employees, and experience the incredible successes I’ve seen along the way. I chose to work through the challenges because I kept building long-lasting relationships with clients, I loved seeing the way our solutions improved their organizations, and I was truly passionate about the AV and Ed Tech markets we support.

I have been the CEO at Tierney since 2016, and I knew that if I could get everyone working in the same direction, we would be amazed by what we’d be able to accomplish together. We had been making great strides before then to come together as a more cohesive team (or as Jim Tierney would say, a well-performing band), and I did my best to keep the momentum going: we moved our two buildings into one new building, we focused on our team culture through employee engagement, and we saw the customer experience reach new heights.

I thought I understood the passion that Tierney employees bring to work, but these past years as CEO have opened my eyes. I have seen technicians staying at a client site until 10pm on a Friday night to ensure everything would work properly for a Saturday meeting, and I have seen our PD team travel 20 nights in 8 different states in the month of August to make a difference at every single PD session they facilitate. THIS is who we are.

Leadership at Tierney is very important. Our Executive and Leadership teams promote communication and transparency, and they help us see what each department does to make Tierney successful. However, I know that leaders at Tierney do not always have “management” in their title. Our leaders foster the culture we need at Tierney. They work hard to bring Tierney to the next level as we continue to grow and change. They make me so incredibly proud.