Welcome Back Team8s: Kyle Walker

8x8 is made up of a diverse bunch of more than 2,000 highly driven Team8s determined to shape how businesses communicate and work in today's rapidly changing world. In this series, we are featuring Team8s who worked at 8x8, left to pursue other interests, and then returned to our team. We’re so excited to welcome back Kyle Walker, who rejoined us as a National Channel Account Manager in the US.

8x8: Kyle, welcome back! To start us off, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do at 8x8?

Kyle Walker (KW): I am based out of Arizona, I’m part of the Channel team at 8x8, and my key focus is to support multiple Telecom Service Distributors (TSD) nationally. As such, I have a national reach in my coverage and a large piece of the work I do involves aligning the resources within 8x8 to the TSD and the partner/trusted advisor community.

When I’m not at work, you can find me traveling with my family. My wife and I have three kids and two dogs. We try to get out as much as possible with us five, as well as our extended family. We have two girls who are heavily involved in dance and theater, and one son that plays multiple sports, but mainly basketball. Also, go Phoenix Suns!

8x8: Did you always know you wanted to pursue a career in this field?

KW: I did not anticipate being in sales at the start of my career. I graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in history and was working at a local eyeglass shop. Then the eyeglass shop went out of business and, as I was looking for a new job to support my young family, I blind-interviewed with a company called Inter-Tel (which was later purchased by Mitel). This is how I found my way into channel sales—it clicked, and the rest was history.

8x8: What have been some of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned throughout your career so far?

KW: Lose fast. Every touchpoint is an opportunity to sell. Happiness is a product of expectations—set the correct ones.

8x8: Is there something that you’ve always wanted to learn or try outside of work?

KW: I would love to have the ability to play a musical instrument. Piano, recorder, theremin, spoons—I'm not picky, I just cannot play anything and I wish I could!

8x8: What’s something surprising that not many people know about you?

KW: I have been on stage in musicals with my daughters multiple times.

8x8: What’s the most exciting thing that has happened to you this year so far?

KW: My first born started college.

8x8: Finally, what encouraged you to return to 8x8?

KW: The people. I had multiple offers for similar roles, however, 8x8 has the best people in the business!

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Read more stories in the Welcome Back Team8s series:link to this section

• Amanda Burton, Global Senior Strategic Partner Manager
• Arnold Szederjesi, Staff Software Engineer
• Ramona Cucuruzanu, Technical Support Engineer
• Arthur Henning, Director of Engineering for Contact Center
• Donald Torrez, Sales Engineer
• Michael Gilbertson, Senior Sales Engineer
• Justin Robbins, 8x8 Evangelist
• Adriana Zăhan, Senior Quality Assurance Engineer
• Jeremiah Soh, IT Senior Engineer
• Daniel Schafer-Smith, Technical Support Engineer, Tier 1
• Alexandru Stoica, Senior Quality Assurance Engineer