“…it is possible to marry passionate endeavor to a gentle disposition…”
– Marcus Aurelius
passion | creativity | balance | growth | quality
culture pioneer, leadership & management coach, business strategist, corporate trainer, operations leader, music director & conductor, trombonist, ceramic artist, potter, craftsman, painter, sketch artist
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About shawn
shawn storer is passionate about people. He is at his best when he is able to dynamically inspire people to do more, to try harder, to be better. He deeply believes in everyone’s potential and has been genuinely lucky in life to be in opportunities to help people improve.
From an early age as a pianist and trombonist, shawn was naturally drawn to music and inspired others from within the group, leading by example in preparation and performance. A Texas All-State trombonist, shawn attended Southern Methodist University’s Algur H. Meadows School of the Arts and played in every possible group he could, from band to orchestra, and jazz to chamber music. At SMU, he looked for collaborative opportunities with other departments including: art; dance; and theatre among others. His need to work with a diverse group of people led to his lifelong pursuit of collaboration.
While attending the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University, shawn continued to develop his passion for people and collaboration. In addition to his studies, he conducted multiple groups whose entrepreneurial spirits matches his own, developing skills in recruiting, organizing, rehearsing, fund raising, and even stage managing. In one circumstance, through grant funding shawn secured from generous private donors, he was able to combine musicians and local artists to create Nectar and Ambrosia: An evening of music and art under the name Tantalus, who in Greek mythology, had stolen nectar and ambrosia from the gods and given it to the people.
Working for the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra after earning his masters degree in conducting, shawn continued to develop his passion for people while fulfilling numerous roles for the not-for-profit professional organization, including: Associate Conductor; Orchestra Librarian; Assistant Personnel Manager; interim Executive Director; Artistic Policy Committee Member; and Ex-Officio Member of the Music Director Search Committee while also teaching continuing education courses on music through the Johns Hopkins University. His collaborative spirit also led to performance partnerships with Towson University’s Sounds of Summer and a venturesome project with the Baltimore Film Festival, accompanying silent films with live chamber orchestra in world premiere performances. These projects and exposure led him to be selected and published as one of Baltimore’s Hottest Singles in Baltimore Magazine.
Yogi Berra said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it!”. shawn has been blessed with an abundance of forks. His first major fork came when the BCO lost funding for his position. Conductors don’t just go to career builder and find a new job, so it was an opportunity to reinvent himself while still pursuing his passion for people and also for music. Having worked in both artistic and administrative roles, shawn went to a temporary agency who placed him with one company. It was a pairing that would dictate the next major chapter in his life.
For ten years, shawn worked for InPhonic/Simplexity which was the e-commerce engine, fulfillment center, and contact center behind more household brands than you realize. While developing his passion for people, he also began to find his inspirational voice. shawn led improvements in reporting, training, quality assurance, and customer service. So much so, that by the end of his tenure, he was responsible for all of these departments and more, in a system of 14 contact centers in the US, India, and the Philippines. These centers spanned sales, customer service, retention, credit, activities, and fraud, 18×7 via voice, chat, and email.
Leading innovation while igniting passion in people was his focus in the contact center world. shawn developed a sales technique which dramatically drove both sales and upselling closing percentages. He also negotiated, procured, designed, and launched a new Learning Management System and drove the daily use of over 1,200 users from 30% completion to over 90% completion rates. At the same time he was driving improvements in contact centers, shawn continued his studies at The Catholic University of America’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, earning his doctor of musical arts degree.
shawn has been lucky to be in the right place at the right time and his time at CUA was no different. While running contact centers around the world and attending classes, he was asked to teach courses to undergraduate students and fill in as music director to the orchestra while also helping to run his second international search for a new music director. Being passionate about people, he took on all these roles, and still inspired innovation in scheduling, curricula, content, and presentation style. His final performance at CUA was a lecture recital on Debussy’s Prelude l’apres midi d un faun, collaborating with the University’s Art, IT, French, and Poetry Departments. shawn delivered a multi-media presentation and concert from the podium, combining his loves of music, art, technology, training, learning, and collaboration.
Moving back to Texas, shawn focused his passion for people in the contact center arena, starting a new center for an established company, then moving on to a larger operations focus at Speed Commerce. During his time there, shawn not only led renovation efforts for the facilities, he also negotiated, procured, and implemented a new Workforce Management System to better schedule and track employee utilization, while on-boarding new clients, and leading a change to 24x7x365 operations and sales support in the US and Mexico. Bringing innovative ideas to the company, he created both career path and succession planning for the employees in the centers.
shawn now holds the role of Chief of People & Culture for Dickey’s Capital Group, and all Dickey’s Brands. As the head of human resources, recruiting, payroll, benefits, leadership development, corporate learning, and system culture, he wears many hats. A frequent guest speaker, shawn fervently believes in inspiring a shared vision and core values of an organization. Passionately believing in and following core values is the best way to create a transparent culture. Always straddling the line, shawn maintains a busy studio output of pottery, sculpture, paintings, and sketches.
