John Risley
This week's Focused on Friday guest is John, our US Director of Sales. With Keeler for about 17 years, he's been around for quite a while! He manages both our internal and external sales teams, our clinical product line and some of our key accounts. Learn about his personal journey into ophthalmology and eyecare, how it changed his life, and where he is headed next.
Keep your eyes peeled for episode 18!
Missed the other episodes? Read them now!
Firstly, what is your role at Keeler?
I am the Director of Sales for the USA. I’ve been with Keeler for about 17 years, so I’ve been with the company for quite a long time! I manage our internal and external sales forces. I’m also involved with overseeing our clinical product line and also managing some of our key accounts.
What do you love about working at Keeler?
I really enjoy everyone I work with from every single department. We really have a great group of people here in the U.S. and the U.K. that work very well together. I enjoy coming to work and interacting with the people I work with. I also find ophthalmology to be a very interesting industry.
How does a day at Keeler typically look for you?
Everyday can be a bit different but my day always starts with a coffee and protein shake. Then by going over all my emails, follow ups from the prior day, and my schedule of meetings or calls for the day with either customers, sales team members, or other employees from Keeler. I do all that I can to support our internal sales and regional sales teams to ensure they provide our customers with top notch service. Everyday can present different challenges and problem solving but I enjoy watching our company succeed and being part of it.
What is your favorite way to start the day?
I usually get up early and exercise for about an hour before work just to get up and get going and start the day woken up and ready to go.
Lastly, tell us a fun fact about yourself
A fun fact about me that actually kind of relates to the industry and eye care is that I was born with strabismus. Both eyes were crossed when I was born, so I have some pretty interesting looking baby pictures. But I got surgery at a very young age to correct strabismus in both eyes, and I had a great doctor that did it and corrected it. So from a young age I was introduced into ophthalmology dealing with that issue and having a couple of surgeries to correct it.
