Burt Walker is a retired military officer, having spent his last ten years in the Air Force as a software engineer. After retirement from the Air Force, he moved to Kentucky to join an electronic payments business started by his father-in-law. While working there, he oversaw a major transition in the software that was the critical asset that propelled the company to further success in subsequent years. The family sold the business in 2005. Burt attributes much of his success to the under-appreciated practice of nepotism.
Following the sale of the family business, Burt began a fifteen-year journey in promoting entrepreneurial initiatives in central Kentucky. He has served on the Central Region Innovation and Commercialization Center board of directors, has been a judge in the highly regarded Idea State U business plan competition, as well as many other competitions in the state of Kentucky.
Burt has dabbled in various other entrepreneurial endeavors himself. Some have succeeded and some have failed. He claims he has learned more from his failures than from his successes. Among those were a joint startup with his son Corey, a speech pathologist, and being the first to develop mobile applications for speech therapists. The company has developed over twenty mobile applications. He is currently self-employed as an independent project manager on software development projects for startup companies. Burt is a board member and is actively involved in a pet rescue organization called Forever Homes for Paws.
He is also a firm believer in the virtue of preparedness and has studied extensively on the processes, practices, and philosophies of those who prepare for calamities of nearly every sort. Some have referred to him as a card-carrying, tinfoil hat wearing prepper. Burt has been married for thirty years and has three adult children with two grandsons.