Peter Allen
Peter Allen has a long career in technology sourcing and outsourced services, working as both a sales leader and management consultant advising corporations on third-party service companies. About 15 years ago, he was invited to join the board of Liberty Source, a young Digital Divide Data venture. Liberty Source was the brainchild of AOL executive Cindy Gallagher and fellow board member Deborah Kops, who saw an opportunity to meet corporate demand for domestic back-office financial services by putting U.S. military veterans and spouses to work, as an alternative to offshore providers. These communities were full of highly educated, motivated individuals in locations across the U.S., an untapped resource for executing cash management, collections, analytics, and financial processes on behalf of customers.
Many of these vets and spouses had never before worked in structured office environments. Unlike typical businesses that retain employees as long as possible, Liberty Source and DDD both celebrated when someone moved on to a higher-paying job with a better professional runway. The mission proved to be a good door opener with executives emotionally attracted to the noble cause, but ultimately contracts were awarded based on price, service levels, and commercial factors. “They'll find the virtuous mission proposition appealing, but at the end of the day, it's got to make good business sense,” Peter said. Recruiting proved challenging due to ebbs and flows in workforce availability—competition from fields like cybersecurity that sought people with security clearances and basic technical understanding. One of Liberty Source's customers, T2, eventually bought the company to create a captive back office center, anticipating significant scale-up in services. They owned it for two to three years before it returned to DDD. Peter’s proudest work was with AOL as the cornerstone customer, delivering solid services during material business transformation, and with Bloomberg, supporting tremendous growth in one of their operating units with a foundation that could scale.
