Building Crisis-Ready Organizations That Thrive
Forged to Thrive™
I help founders and CEOs build organizational resilience through stakeholder alignment — so the next crisis doesn’t break what you’ve built.
About Kent
Companies can absolutely fail from a single crisis—but it’s rarely a single point of failure that brings them down. It’s the foundational misalignments across leadership, employees, customers, suppliers, and shareholders that have been building for years. The crisis doesn’t create the fractures. It exposes them.
I help Founders and CEOs build organizations that don’t just survive disruption—they thrive through it. My framework, Forged in the Common Good™, aligns six critical stakeholder groups—Leadership, Employees, Customers, Suppliers & Partners, Shareholders & Investors, and Community—so that when crisis hits, your organization has the resilience to absorb it.
This isn’t theory. I’ve lived it.
As GM Operations (COO) of High West Distillery, I scaled operations 800% ($2.5M to $24M revenue), led a $40M facility expansion, and helped position the company for a $160M acquisition at a 10x revenue multiple. As CEO of Whiskey Del Bac, I was named three weeks before COVID shut everything down—and still raised $4.5M, grew the investor base from 26 to 100+, and drove a 14% CAGR through the worst industry downturn in decades.
Along the way, I turned around a confectionery manufacturer that lost 25% of its revenue overnight, restructured a mismanaged 560,000 sq ft real estate complex, and learned—through doing, not theorizing—what makes organizations resilient.
Before the boardroom, there was the battlefield. As a West Point graduate and Armored Cavalry Officer in Desert Storm, I led Battalion Maintenance for a 600 soldier and 200 vehicle battalion. Personally responsible for 105 of those soldiers and every single one came safely home.
I codified all of it into the Forged in the Common Good™ framework. Because the organizations that serve all their stakeholders don’t just survive crisis—they thrive through it.
My role: find the cracks before the next crisis exposes them.
West Point Graduate | CEO & COO | Gulf War Veteran | 40 Years of Leadership
Proven Results: Stakeholder Alignment in Action
Commercial Real Estate Restructuring
Stakeholders: Employees, Suppliers, Customers (Tenants), Shareholders
Situation: Took over a mismanaged 560,000 sq ft office/retail complex with deferred maintenance, broken vendor relationships, and eroding tenant confidence.
Solution: Rebuilt the property management team, overhauled vendor partnerships, enforced lease terms, and restored tenant satisfaction across all stakeholder groups.
Impact: Transformed asset performance. Boosted property value, increased parking and leasing revenue, and rebuilt the trust that stakeholder neglect had destroyed.
Crisis CEO: COVID Leadership
Stakeholders: Shareholders & Investors, Employees, Customers
Situation: Took over as CEO just before the COVID-19 shutdowns. Sales dropped, production halted, and staffing was reduced by 50%.
Solution: Aligned all stakeholder groups around a survival-to-growth plan. Raised $4.5M in capital, grew investor base from 26 to 100+, revamped portfolio, and expanded distribution.
Impact: Drove 14% CAGR through the worst industry downturn in decades. Proved that stakeholder alignment enables resilience when crisis hits hardest.
Confectionery Turnaround
Stakeholders: Employees, Customers, Shareholders
Situation: A $15M manufacturer lost a single customer representing 25% of revenue and nearly all profit—exposing dangerous customer concentration and cost structure weaknesses.
Solution: Empowered department heads and their teams to redesign products and rebuild cost models. Cut unprofitable SKUs by 50%. Led a transparent, respectful workforce reduction.
Impact: Restored profitability to all SKUs. Minimized key customer dependency. The employees who solved the crisis were the same stakeholder group most at risk—proving that aligned teams don’t just survive, they innovate under pressure.
Craft Distillery → $160M Acquisition
Stakeholders: Suppliers & Partners, Employees, Shareholders, Community
Situation: A craft distillery scaling from $2.5M to $24M in revenue, facing production bottlenecks and capacity constraints that threatened every stakeholder relationship.
Solution: Built supplier partnerships that reduced bottle costs by 40%. Oversaw a $40M facility expansion. Grew team capacity while maintaining culture. Kept community relationships strong through explosive growth.
Impact: Enabled 800% revenue growth and positioned the company for a $160M acquisition at a 10x revenue multiple. Every stakeholder group was healthier at exit than at entry—that’s the Common Good in action.
Let’s Talk
Whether you need a stakeholder assessment, a keynote speaker, or a strategic partner to help you build something that lasts—start here. The first call is on me.