Sara Gray Email & Phone Number

Portland, Oregon, United States

Acted as strategic adviser to executive and was responsible for all aspects of operations and program management, as team scaled from 5 to 120 over 18 months. Led all-hands meetings, leadership discussions, internal communications, and community engagement programs to support scaling efforts. • Built and led strategic initiatives Project Management Office (PMO) that implemented Cisco marketing’s strategic transformation and 3-year plan across marketing organization of 2,000+… Show more Acted as strategic adviser to executive and was responsible for all aspects of operations and program management, as team scaled from 5 to 120 over 18 months. Led all-hands meetings, leadership discussions, internal communications, and community engagement programs to support scaling efforts. • Built and led strategic initiatives Project Management Office (PMO) that implemented Cisco marketing’s strategic transformation and 3-year plan across marketing organization of 2,000+. • Achieved 2.5x ROI increase over 2 years by designing and implementing campaign-led operating model to streamline messaging and segmentation strategy that redirected investment to high-impact countries.• Improved data clarity by creating Marketing’s ‘single source of truth’ dashboard to replace 700+ conflicting dashboards, ensuring data quality with transition to Tableau and saving $1M annually. • Led integration of Cisco and Splunk partner marketing teams, resulting in unified team of 200+ marketers, strategic alignment for campaigns and events, and consolidation of tools, operations, processes, and roles and responsibilities Show less

Portland, Oregon, United States

Introduced innovative operational strategies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of Small Business team. Scaled team from 4 to 16 FTEs, drove strategic planning. • Achieved GTM launch in 8 weeks, earning C-level Award, by managing planning and launch of the new SMB brand, "Cisco Designed," coordinating efforts of 200+ staff across Sales & Partner, Marketing, and Engineering.• Increased SMB marketing-sourced revenues to account for 60% of total marketing revenues by leading… Show more Introduced innovative operational strategies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of Small Business team. Scaled team from 4 to 16 FTEs, drove strategic planning. • Achieved GTM launch in 8 weeks, earning C-level Award, by managing planning and launch of the new SMB brand, "Cisco Designed," coordinating efforts of 200+ staff across Sales & Partner, Marketing, and Engineering.• Increased SMB marketing-sourced revenues to account for 60% of total marketing revenues by leading effort to segment SMB market into small and midsize categories, enabling stronger focus on small businesses for optimized growth.• Took charge of ad hoc projects such as Cisco Live thought-leader interviews and customer success stories for “Bridge to Possible” campaign. Show less

Portland, Oregon, United States

Led global strategy and operational initiatives to drive efficiency and alignment across marketing organization by setting OKRs, QBRs, and leading weekly operational reviews with marketing operations community. Implemented cross-functional initiatives, ensuring stakeholder buy-in and continuous improvement.• Ensured seamless strategic alignment across 15 marketing leaders and 1,200 FTEs by creating standard operating model with unified metrics framework for Regional, Functional, and… Show more Led global strategy and operational initiatives to drive efficiency and alignment across marketing organization by setting OKRs, QBRs, and leading weekly operational reviews with marketing operations community. Implemented cross-functional initiatives, ensuring stakeholder buy-in and continuous improvement.• Ensured seamless strategic alignment across 15 marketing leaders and 1,200 FTEs by creating standard operating model with unified metrics framework for Regional, Functional, and Product Marketing Teams across EMEA, APJC, and Americas.• Optimized allocation of $600M global marketing budget by aligning 3 Regional Marketing Teams, 4 Functional Marketing Teams (Digital, Events, Partner, Brand), and 4 Product Marketing Teams through weekly interlocks, new strategic planning process, and quarterly business reviews. • Achieved cross-functional buy-in on standardized suite of 20 KPIs from single source of truth to boost reliability and uniformity of executive dashboards. Spearheaded data-driven decision-making by implementing analytics frameworks and enabled scalable marketing operations to drive engagement and revenue.Developed new standard operating model and gained buy-in from 15 Marketing leaders and 1,200 FTEs overseeing 3 different worldwide business segments. Show less

San Jose, California, United States

Established Marketing’s EIC Program and managed global team to run Intern, Co-op, Undergraduate New Hire, and MBA Leadership Development Program. • Grew participation 3x over 2 years by developing and scaling comprehensive program strategy, roadmap, and standardized policies for recruiting, onboarding, and placement across 3 continents. • Achieved 70% reduction in hiring time and 9x increase in applications within first year while managing 40 interns and 40 FTEs globally.• Boosted… Show more Established Marketing’s EIC Program and managed global team to run Intern, Co-op, Undergraduate New Hire, and MBA Leadership Development Program. • Grew participation 3x over 2 years by developing and scaling comprehensive program strategy, roadmap, and standardized policies for recruiting, onboarding, and placement across 3 continents. • Achieved 70% reduction in hiring time and 9x increase in applications within first year while managing 40 interns and 40 FTEs globally.• Boosted participants' CSAT scores from 58% to 97% and post-internship offer acceptance rates from 50% to 90% over 2 years by injecting rigor into management accountability. Show less

San Jose, Ca

Participated in 2-year post-MBA rotation program for high-potential managers. Promoted to manage program after 12 months.• Rotation 1: Strategic Marketing; Created method to quantify partner wallets in Cisco’s commercial segment and determined Cisco’s influence on key markets. • Rotation 2: Government Affairs; Successfully lobbied CA governor’s office to increase tech budget by $2.3M, and led Request for Proposal process to enroll in tax incentive programs.

San Jose, Ca

Planned and managed multiple growth and compliance initiatives related to Cisco’s Networking Certification in 170 countries serving millions of trainees. Centralized the process of allying with foreign NGOs and governments, leading to the creation of more than 20 coalitions per year.Drove award-winning change management initiatives, gaining buy-in from 80 global staff. Spearheaded end-to-end Salesforce implementation.

Redwood City, Ca

Electronic Health Records (EHR) Implementation Project• Oversaw daily operations, including hiring and onboarding IT consultants from 5 different teams to roll out EHR platform used by 200+ staff.• Defined and rolled out post-launch support processes and protocols, including communication strategy for 400 staff on a 24/7 schedule.

Monterey, Ca

Education & Non-Profit ProgramsCoordinated program development efforts, including needs analysis, funding strategy and budgeting, employee handbook, and process governance. Won praise from supervisors and non-profit directors for program management skills.

Master Of Business Administration (Mba)

Master Of International Policy Studies (Maips), International Trade And Development

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), History