Heather Combs Email & Phone Number

Houma, Louisiana, Us

Ripple Operations is the leading Crew Success platform in the global maritime industry. With a focus on reliability, and customer satisfaction, we empower maritime organizations to optimize crew performance, enhance safety, and achieve sustainable growth in a rapidly evolving landscape. Our comprehensive suite of software solutions spans human capital management, including crew operations, compliance, learning, development and assessment and safety, helping our clients navigate the complexities of maritime operations with confidence.

Mindshare is designed for CEOs who want to grow their company smarter, faster.For 27 years this invitation-only network has brought together CEOs from the most promising, high growth technology companies across the DC region. Today, there are over 1,100 Alumni helping support leaders of companies from seed stage to exit.

New York, Ny, Us

I believe in the power of a diversified room of thought leaders. When I have the opportunity to help build those rooms and fill them with talent, I jump at it. Chief is a private network built to drive more women into positions of leadership and keep them there. Chief is the only organization specifically designed for senior women leaders to strengthen their leadership journey, cross-pollinate ideas across industries, and effect change from the top-down. Chief’s network of senior executive women represents 10,000 companies. 77% of Fortune 100 companies have an executive in Chief, and 40% of Chief Members are in their company’s C-Suite.

Arlington, Va, Us

- Appointed CEO of StraighterLine, one of EdTech’s fastest growing companies that seeks to empower learners with flexible and accessible pathways to reach their college and career goals. - Spearheaded successful 2-year pivot from founders’ pre-pandemic business model to focus on B2C sales of competitively priced college and vocational credentialing products.-Lead the company through its first acquisition of ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI), one of the largest online training providers for early childhood education professionals. This acquisition was the company’s first step to significantly expand its course offerings to include career readiness.- Boosted profitability via coordinated strategic initiatives; launched market-relevant strategy with sunsets of underperforming product lines and completion of targeted restructuring. Reinvigorated corporate culture and purpose by writing mission, vision, and values.- Recruited, built, and led strategic leadership bench with deep education experience and industry expertise. - Implemented 401K and revamped benefits including parental leave to become an employer of choice.- Evangelized the business to employees, investors, and partners; managed board relations to include regular updates and meetings.- Served as spokesperson at large-/small-scale conferences and events and personally met with clients, universities, and contractors.

Fairfax, Va, Us

- Built strategies that sustained double-digit growth culminating in $140M ARR with footprint in 9 countries and global staff of 2300.- Served in multiple executive leadership roles at future-focused, disruptive digital product development and services company with portfolios across Technology, Retail, Media & Information Services, and Market Development sectors.- Led all marketing, business development, and operations functions, then oversaw development and operations of shared services and integration of new acquisitions, offices, and markets within resulting nimble go-to-market machine.- Created/executed 3Pillar’s commercial and operations strategy around successful acquistions of Costa Rica-based Isthmus Software, US-based firms Tiempo Development and Software Development Europe, and a dev team ‘acqui-hire’ from Janeiro Digital.- Co-engineered and instilled company’s key differentiator, The Product Mindset, with core values of Build for Outcomes, Minimize Time to Value, and Excel at Change. Strategized concurrent publication (David DeWolf andJessica Hall) featured at CTA’s annual CES event.

Fairfax, Va, Us

Fairfax, Va, Us

Alexandria, Virginia, Us

- Selected to successfully build and position 4-person Executive Leadership Team to reengineer company’s HR certification exam infrastructure after separation from previous strategic GTM partner. Established HRCI as an independent HR certification body.- Updated existing certification products, marketing, new product/service development, direct sales, and 3rd party provider networks.- Identified, negotiated, and executed elite strategic partnerships and assessed M&A targets to extend organization’s reach through market awareness, brand affinity, product offerings, exam preparation resources, and continuing education. - Worked to monetize suite of products, services, and partnerships to drive corporate mission of supporting all HR professional levels.

Rockville, Md, Us

- Engaged to hire/lead direct sales team for $60M evolving professional services firm with 29 partners and 230+ accountants.- Assessed and transitioned existing staff, hired new sales reps, and built out go-to-market strategy aligned with firm's existing industry strengths. Created goals, metrics and tracking procedures for first-ever evaluation of business development efforts.- Scrutinized legacy spending, re-focused strategies by service line, and shifted billable time to higher ROI activities. • Enlisted next-generation leaders into business development roundtable with networking and public speaking training programs.- Elevated annual offsite meeting into THE motivational capstone event of the year, creating fun ways to engage all staff levels months ahead of event. Boosted morale, engagement, and retention by infusing company culture with energy and shared purpose.

Arlington, Va, Us

- In a one year, foundation building project successfully launched foundational practice with high-growth B2B data product resulting from intense cross-functional collaboration with account management, strategy, marketing, and product teams to quickly accelerate business growth. - Created efficient infrastructure to facilitate inside and outside sales.- Increased brand awareness via new messaging rolled out through revised sales collateral, training, and marketing partnerships.- Partnered closely with product development team to identify additional growth potential incorporating detailed customer feedback.

Arlington, Va, Us

- Managed the annual global revenue performance of CLEx to above 103% of goal, led the division in new business growth and exceeded all individual P&L, budget and margin projections. - Created and managed the value proposition, go-to-market strategy, product line and service strategy for 650+ mid-size company Legal, Compliance and Risk clients ($9M+ Revenue) by managing the business unit P&L, budget, margin and staff and tracked and reported on performance metrics.-Expanded year-over-year contract value of the business by 21% in 2011, developed the sales, marketing and communications strategy including brand management through print, electronic and social media channels which led to a 20% increase in web product utilization and 300% increase in live event attendance.- Designed and executed the product management strategy as well as R&D investments to enhance product and service portfolio and directly managed product and service portfolio including research, executive education, benchmarking, and implementation tools.

Arlington, Va, Us

- Coming out of a recession, I increased the firm's revenues by $5M in 2010 through new products and new sales channels. - Assessed the product portfolio and developed business cases for rationalizing that portfolio to senior management while working closely with senior executives including the General Counsel and interim-CFO as well as accounting and business unit leads in the highly matrixed organization. - To launch new products, I developed an evaluation and test launch process for determining commercial viability of products, conducted competitive analysis (including build, buy, or ally strategies) to compete in various markets and effectively managed a team of seven senior staff responsible for executing on the decisions.- Led six new product launches and four alliance relationships including a strategic partnership with the NYSE (migrating from NASDAQ) resulting in significant improvements in referral revenue growth and corporate branding; nine additional partnerships were vetted and dismissed. I facilitated the integration of the JM Lafferty acquisition and utilized the IP to increase firm revenue.- My team also initiated, developed and executed the first annual Finance Summit with more than 300 senior executive participants and generated $750,000 in revenue through vendor and sponsor partners.

Arlington, Va, Us

- Responsible for enhancing business unit strategy through improved revenue operations including process redesign for functions, building process maps, writing job descriptions, and creating compensation philosophies and staff training. - Directly supported a General Manager with $500M in renewable business under management to support revenue growth through improved marketing, sales, renewal and service strategies. I assessed business performance and regularly analyzed revenue metrics including ongoing individual performance metrics; completed all quantitative and qualitative retrospective performance reviews.- Managed a $17M budget and provided regular analysis for necessary adjustments across the year, worked with HR lead to recruit, interview, hire and manage various staff members and developed a department wide skills assessment and training program for 375+ person revenue team.- While experiencing a difficult recession, I served on a small team tasked with re-engineering a 350+ person worldwide Finance Division product team, which included a needs assessment analysis, extensive job redesign, and reduction-in-force plan. While certainly one of my least favorite career moments, I learned a great deal.

Arlington, Va, Us

- Everyone should carry a bag! As an individual contributor, I sold information, products and services to senior executives within F500 and Global 2000 companies through a consultative in-person or telephone sales process.- I generated over $1M in annual revenue; exceeded all goals, set record-breaking conversion rates and shortened sales cycles by successfully managing sales pipelines by mastering product terrain while monitoring industry trends and institutional issues.

Arlington, Va, Us

- Launched a business unit serving Chief Legal Officers which grew to serve more than 700 General Counsel and their respective legal departments. - Hired, trained and supervised a team of account managers and administrative personnel with more than $12M in revenue responsibility. I developed relationships and client services for in-house legal departments and developed a successful sales and renewal segmentation strategy.- Our team collectively, and I personally, won account management awards for top company renewal rate and price increase in 2001.- Before managing the team, I directly managed a pool of 100+ client relationships with an average renewal rate in excess of 90%.

Arlington, Va, Us

- Conducted primary and secondary research for best practice studies and customized client solutions

Financial Analysis For Nonfinancial Managers

Master Of Public Service And Administration, International Relations

Bachelor Of Science, Political Science And Psychology

Communicating With Power And Presence: Highly Effective Communications