Walton Stinson

WAAS Designation:

Fellow

Primary Position & Institution:

Founder and CEO at ListenUp, Chairman at ProSource, Director at HS4A

Short Bio:

Walton Stinson is a technology entrepreneur focused on the challenges of organizational development. He has worked as a board leader, lecturer, consultant, executive, and founder at numerous companies and associations, from startups to multi-national corporations and not-for-profit organizations. Walt has played a leading role in the World Academy’s partnership with UNTFGHS for the Human Security Global campaign since its inception and spent a full year working on the project prior to it being approved by the UNTFHS. He is now a Managing Director and Treasurer of the HS4A, Human Security for All, campaign, a partnership of WAAS and the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security. He was the facilitator for two successful HS4A events: The CES2023, which exposed WAAS to more than 120,000 attendees, and the International Amateur Radio Union onthe- air activity around World Amateur Radio Day, which resulted in more than 50,000 engagements. He is widely recognized as an original contributor to both organizational and technological innovations in the consumer electronics industry. In 2009 he was inducted into the Consumer Technology Hall of Fame alongside Apple Founder Steve Jobs, Qualcomm founder and cellular technology pioneer, Irwin Jacobs, for his pioneering work ushering in the digital age and “for his significant contributions to the world in shaping the technology industry we know today”. Walt is a regular speaker on effective management and was engaged as a guest lecturer at the Federal Executive Management Institute, where he taught private sector service concepts to executives of agency and military branches of the US government. He co-founded and served as President and later as General Advisor, of the Professional Audio/Video Retailers Association (PARA), which grew to over 250 member companies. The PARA mission was to help entrepreneurs grow their companies through executive development programs and management conferences. He received PARA’s highest honor, its Founder’s Award. He also co-founded Assured Systems, an innovative cooperative distributor of electronic products, enabling small businesses to compete more effectively with large chain retailers. Assured Systems grew to 50 member companies before being acquired. Currently, Walt is CEO of ListenUp, a regional technology integrator and ecommerce distributor based in Denver Colorado. He is chairman of ProSource, the largest trading group in consumer electronics with more than 500 companies and $6 billion in total revenue. ProSource provides extensive training opportunities to its members, including ProSource Academy for in person technical training and ProSource University for online management training. Walt received a diploma in Electronics before earning a BA in economics at Knox College and an MBA from the University of Colorado. He holds a Blockchain Technology Certification from MIT.