About the Author

Scott Lerner has over a decade of experience leading people. Currently he is serving as the Senior Vice President of Global Services at Akamai Technologies, a global team of 2300 people. The team helps the world’s top businesses solve the toughest online problems. He considers himself a student of leadership, searching for new ideas, frameworks, concepts, podcasts, and books to help him be the best leader possible.  His mission is to inspire other people to succeed in their careers and in life.

His Journey to Leadership

For as long as he can remember, Scott found himself drawn to leadership. Whether it was picking teams in gym class, being a hall monitor, or serving as his fraternity pledge class President, he was always excited and motivated to take on leadership roles. When Scott first started his career he didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up and actually he still doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows. He will tell you that he had no idea that he could turn his passion for leading into a career. In fact if you had asked him what he wanted to be when he was growing up or even in his early college days the answer would have been that was going to be a lawyer. The fact that he didn’t follow that path is a story for Scott to share in a future blog entry.

Scott got his first taste of semi-formal leadership as a Team Lead on a software development project. He was a consultant working on a project for Agilent leading a team that was a mix of consultants and employees. At that point in his career he had no formal training in leadership or real sense of what it meant to be a leader. Overall, he was successful despite not having a true understanding of what the role was nor a real understanding of leadership. The role gave him clarity on what he wanted to do with his career, he wanted to be a people leader.

He shifted away from roles as a Software Developer when he joined Akamai in 2005 as a Technical Project Manager (TPM), a step he saw that would take him closer to his first full time leadership role. His first 4 plus years as a Project Manager at Akamai were spent in roles leading both customer and internal projects. Over this time, he started learning more about what it meant to be a leader. At the end of the day a PM is a leader, although it is one lacking formal authority over the project team in most cases.

He got his first opportunity to be a people leader at the end of 2009 when he was selected for a position as a Practice Manager for a group of Solutions Architects. You can read more about this role in Can a Leader Control Their Own Success?

That first role led him on a path to move up the ranks at Akamai while continuously growing as a leader. He helped found a new team, Service Delivery, within the Global Services and Support organization. Shortly after that he was promoted to Sr. Manager with a focus on Akamai’s largest customers, with aligned Professional Services teams. Scott was then asked to lead the entire Service Delivery organization for Akamai’s customers in the Americas.

After an 18 year career in Professional Services, Scott took a chance and moved to Akamai’s Customer Care team, now known as AkaTec short for Akamai Technical Support. He was the Sr. Director responsible for the Technical Support of Akamai’s customers in the Americas. In 2019 he was asked to lead all of AkaTec and was promoted to Vice President, Global Technical Support. In 2021 the team was merged with Akamai’s SOCC and was renamed Support Services. Today, Scott is the SVP of Akamai’s Global Services organization.

As a student of leadership, Scott is always continuously learning more about being a better leader. He has taken training, read books, watched TED talks, listened to podcasts, and much more. His curiosity to learn how he can be a better leader keeps him continuously seeking out new knowledge, knowledge that he is now sharing with you through this blog.  He is driven by the idea of making the people he is leading as successful as possible.

Personal Interests

Scott loves to travel, both for pleasure and work, and hopes to see as much of the world as possible. Podcasts and books are his favorite ways to learn about leadership. For fun he reads murder mysteries, dystopian novels, and fantasy like Harry Potter and A Song of Fire and Ice. He enjoys TV and movies, especially watching the MCU and Star Wars with his 2 teenage daughters. And he loves playing and watching sports including soccer, tennis, football, and baseball. In winter, he spends as much time on the mountain skiing as possible.

Other Info

Favorite Books About Leadership

Favorite Podcasts

Fun Facts

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