Ken Knowles
Executive Vice President, Enterprise Strategy and Business Development
Ken Knowles is the global head of Enterprise Strategy and Business Development. He is responsible for managing Openlink’s strategic planning process, including broader strategic objectives and product strategy, to position Openlink for sustainable long term growth and drive operational excellence and efficiency in day-to-day execution. This role was created in 2016 to support a strategic operational approach that aligns long-term vision, mid-range strategy, and near-term operating tactics.
Mr. Knowles joined Openlink in 1996 to manage the company’s research and development activities, assist with business development and sales initiatives, and work closely with clients on key strategic engagements. As the organization grew, Mr. Knowles assumed full responsibility for the risk and analytic elements of Openlink’s solution sets. In 2007, his responsibilities broadened to include commercial ownership of the Findur product line. As a chief architect of Openlink’s financial trading and risk functionality, Mr. Knowles has played an active role in software development and design, as well as lending support to client needs and sales initiatives. In recognition of his broad scope of understanding across the Openlink product set, he was promoted in 2012 to a new role as the first Global Head of Product Management for all Openlink products and solutions, where he was responsible for defining product strategy, roadmaps, and vision, aligning product positioning and value propositions in key market segments, and working closely with product development teams on software enhancement initiatives.
Prior to joining Openlink, Mr. Knowles worked at Mobil Corporation as a trader in the Capital Markets Group, managing the interest rate and currency exposures of Mobil’s global treasury portfolio.
Prior to that, he was a Systems Engineer, providing decision support, modeling, and optimization services to the United States Navy’s Submarine Launched Tomahawk program office.
Mr. Knowles holds an M.S. in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. degree in Systems Engineering with distinction from the University of Virginia.
