Glidden manages investments for Delta's defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans. In 2002, Glidden joined his alma mater, Emory University, to work in its endowment. He spent five years as the organization’s director of investment analytics before heading to Wilmington Trust, where he worked as the director of portfolio construction and manager research. Glidden studied mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, then pivoted to business, obtaining his MBA from Emory University. He followed that degree with a Master of Science in financial mathematics at the University of Chicago.