Joe enjoys addressing challenges

Joe Walker enjoys a good challenge. That makes him good at solving them, which he does as one of Paladin’s outstanding technical services representatives.

A native of Harrison, Idaho, Joe served six years in the U.S. Army on a 15 Whiskey (15W) deployment – an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Following that stint, he went to work for Best Buy and was a member of its Geek Squad, which specializes in solving customer challenges.

A little over a year ago, Joe found a home at Paladin Data Corporation.

“A lot of the aviation roots drew me to Paladin,” he says, citing the company’s history of using its private aircraft to grow the business. “It feels very comfortable.”

He points out the red binders used by both Paladin project managers and pilots as flight manuals, the layout of the Bend office, and even the POS interface as having a familiar aviation feel.

Bend, too, with its rivers, lakes and pine-covered mountains, felt familiar to Joe who grew up a stone’s throw from Idaho’s pristine Lake Coeur d’Alene. Joe, his wife, Jessica, who is also an Army vet, and their two furry kids – Wrex, an American Mastiff and Liara, a black and tan hound, wasted no time in settling into Central Oregon.

Joe’s technical background in the Army’s drone program and with Geek Squad gives him good experience to slide right into his duties at Paladin. He spends a lot of his time making sure suppliers’ sales and promotions work smoothly through Paladin.

“If I can find something that could cause some heartache for stores and fix it, it means fewer manhours spent for us and our stores addressing it,” he says. “What I do directly impacts a lot of businesses. I like that kind of challenge.”