Denise Sangster ─ Creating game-changing opportunities.
October 21, 2020 • 2 Minute Read
Denise Sangster
President & CEO
Global Touch, Inc.
Are you looking for next generation ideas to unleash the power of partners and create predictable revenue streams? We know just the person! Denise Sangster is the CEO and founder of Global Touch, partner-focused strategy and go-to market transformation consulting firm. She creates game changer opportunities for her clients who are investing in the moment to leverage the future. Please meet this IT Wondrous Woman™, Denise Sangster.
Our 10 Questions for this IT Wondrous Woman.
Fun Facts
1. What’s the one thing about you that your business colleagues don’t know about you?
I needlepoint Christmas ornaments and stockings from hand painted designs I collect around the world, plus some my own designs. I like to use a broad range of fibers (silk, metallic, velvet, wool, etc.), colors, and stitches.
2. Before the pandemic, how many air miles/KMs did you flying annually?
180,000+ miles.
3. What is the most adventurous food you have eaten and what city/location did you eat it?
Whale and seal in Reykjavík, Iceland and barbecued Scorpions in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Your Career
4. What are the top two experiences, achievements or failures that shaped your journey as a successful leader?
Creating the first Pan-European IT conference for the channel (“EuroChannels”). It was “the” conference in EMEA for 10 years. The number of women in attendance was less than 10 per year when I sold it.
I have helped clients, including investors and venture capitalists, with due diligence in many acquisitions over the years. I know many acquisitions fail, but it hurt to watch the buyer of my conference business kill it...
5. Did you have a mentor in the early part of your career and, if so, what is the biggest lesson you learned from your mentor or influencer?
Starting at the age of 5 I had a swimming coach who was a three-time medallist at the 1948 Olympic Games and she continued to mentor me well into my 30s. She taught us to train like we’d never won and compete like we never lost and to remember every competition is about winning and learning, not winning or losing. I also had a number of managers, clients, and a family friend coach and mentor me. They also provided me with a mix of invaluable business, operational, and finance guidance.
Walking In Your Shoes
6. What is one piece of business or career advice you would give to your younger self?
Leverage or build a tool to continually nurture my network around the world. LinkedIn is a great tool for tracking contacts, but adding value to them is the hard part. I am lucky that many in my network around the world have turned into personal friendships.
7. As a leader, how do you remain a resource for people early in their careers?
Every summer we have at least two UC Berkeley college interns work for us to provide them a real job experience. Nearly all of our interns are current or recent U.C. Berkeley athletes!
Today’s Business Environment
8. What is the most interesting project you have worked on in the last few years?
I continually work on interesting projects. The most nerve wracking was during the initial wave of the pandemic when we interviewed hundreds of corporate customers and partners around the world to understand how they were responding to the pandemic, changing purchasing (subscriptions/cloud versus CAPEX), ensuring business continuity, rebuilding a virtual sales pipeline, and so forth.
9. What skills are you currently developing or refining (in yourself) that will make you a more successful leader in the digital economy?
Digital marketing in order to communicate more impactfully and add more value to my network.
10. What is your greatest business challenge today?
Staying a step ahead of what’s coming next from a technology, business model evolution, and the continuous lifecycle.
