Meet Neal Starkey
Founder & Principal | Zoom Out Strategies
For more than four decades, Neal Starkey has built, led, and helped transform businesses, bringing practical experience to challenges involving growth, strategy, and organizational change.
His career spans business ownership, serving as President and Chief Operating Officer, and holding senior leadership positions within large corporations. This experience has given him a firsthand understanding of the decisions, responsibilities, and challenges facing business leaders.
Today, through Zoom Out Strategies, Neal draws on that experience to provide executives and leadership teams with independent perspective, practical judgment, and trusted guidance as they navigate important business decisions and organizational challenges.
Experience That Brings Perspective
Neal's career has provided firsthand experience across a range of business environments, including:
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Significant equity ownership and hands-on executive leadership in building, operating, and scaling a growing technology business.
Private-Equity Experience
Leading an expanded back-office technology business within a private-equity-backed organization, navigating acquisition and integration while supporting growth and organizational continuity.
Public Company Experience
Leading teams and technology initiatives within a large, complex public company, working across multiple stakeholders and global teams.
Enterprise Experience
Working with major enterprise customers, navigating acquisitions and integrations, and managing complex business relationships.
Experience in Practice
Neal Starkey's career reflects progressively broader leadership responsibilities—from building and growing a technology business, through acquisition and integration within a private-equity-backed organization, to senior leadership roles at Global Payments, a publicly traded corporation.
This progression has provided firsthand experience across entrepreneurial, private-equity-backed, and public company environments, combining hands-on business leadership with strategic development, organizational transformation, technology innovation, and complex commercial relationships.
Business Leadership & Growth
As RTI’s fifth employee, Neal progressed from software developer to significant equity owner, President, and Chief Operating Officer, playing a central role in building and scaling the business.
With full P&L responsibility, he led business strategy, operations, organizational development, and technology innovation. His leadership was instrumental in establishing RTI as a successful provider of enterprise technology solutions to the restaurant industry.
Acquisition & Business Integration
Following RTI's acquisition, Neal continued leading the business through its transition into a larger, private-equity-backed organization. During a 16-month integration period, the business retained 64 of 65 employees while maintaining customer relationships and expanding its operational responsibilities.
He subsequently led the evolution of RTI’s back-office technology into a flagship offering within the larger enterprise, bringing together multinational teams to deliver the transition while maintaining organizational continuity through successive business integrations.
Enterprise Technology & Innovation
Neal has extensive experience designing, developing, and commercializing technology solutions for complex, multi-location businesses. His background includes deep expertise in operational and financial management systems, enterprise software, and technology strategies that support business growth and efficiency.
At Global Payments, Neal held executive responsibility for the development and delivery of the Genius countertop hardware platform and the development of its next-generation AI-enabled handheld device, whose commercial launch is pending.
Working closely with the leader driving day-to-day development and the broader team, he combined executive oversight with hands-on involvement in product design, engineering and manufacturing collaboration, international supplier relationships, and key commercial decisions.
Strategic & Commercial Leadership
In senior leadership roles at Global Payments, Neal worked across strategic growth, business transformation, technology initiatives, and complex commercial relationships.
His experience includes strengthening international supplier partnerships, developing organizational and product delivery frameworks, and helping leadership teams evaluate challenges and establish practical paths forward.
Neal's experience also includes presenting a major hardware platform and its supporting strategy to the Board of Directors of a Fortune 500 company, as well as presenting to institutional investors and financial-market audiences.
Throughout his career, he has placed particular emphasis on developing people and building effective teams, mentoring emerging leaders and helping organizations create environments where individuals can grow and succeed.
Why Zoom Out Strategies
Throughout his career, Neal has seen how easily leaders and organizations can become consumed by immediate demands, competing priorities, and complex challenges.
He founded Zoom Out Strategies around a simple belief: sometimes the most valuable thing a leader can do is step back, gain perspective, and see the bigger picture.
Drawing on decades of hands-on executive experience, Neal works with business leaders to understand challenges, evaluate alternatives, develop practical strategies, and move forward with greater clarity and confidence.
His approach combines independent perspective with active strategic development—helping leaders not only determine what needs to change, but also shape the strategies, organizational approaches, and business solutions needed to move forward.
A broader perspective can lead to better decisions.
“Sound decisions begin with understanding the real problem, considering different perspectives, and choosing a path the organization can execute.”Neal Starkey
Have a conversation about your goals.
Neal welcomes the opportunity to learn more about your challenges and explore how Zoom Out Strategies can help.
GET IN TOUCHA conversation can create clarity.
If your organization is navigating growth, change, or complexity, Neal welcomes the opportunity to discuss how Zoom Out Strategies can help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
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