Laura Whitaker Email & Phone Number

Washington, Dc, Us

Washington, Dc, Us

In lieu of a professional executive director, the Club President bears operational responsibility for seeing that the purposes of the Club are carried out. Chair meetings of the Board and several committees, promote the development and contributions of volunteer input from Board members, devise strategies for organizational solvency and growth, update value proposition of membership for the 21st century, manage professional staff. Major projects include:• Stood up a Centennial Celebration plan within a Covid-compressed timeframe and toasted the Club’s 100 year birthday with several honored US Congressional Representatives in attendance• Revived the Club’s dormant relationships with relevant organizations in the Democratic political space• Replaced several outmoded systems with a cohesive software management platform. Proposed, garnered approval for, and executed a major project from defining requirements and vetting vendor candidates through to overseeing the implementation and rollout of the software and website.

Politics organizing hub focusing on candidate recruitment and donor advising• Activated hundreds of retail-level contacts via bi-weekly newsletters (100% original content), guiding political contributions, campaign support, and knowledge of citizen engagement in electoral politics. Provided retail-level interpretation of the political landscape; developed frameworks for donor planning; staffed an insurgent Senate primary campaign, showcased nonprofit voter registration organizations through a widely-viewed online conference; offered strategy inputs for political giving circles.• Coordinated the recruitment of multiple candidates for US Senate, 2020 cycle

An exploratory startup within USIP PeaceTech Lab, 2017-2018. Funding interruption placed firm on hold. 2018• Formulated enterprise vision with CEO, built roadmaps for immediate, medium-, and long-term progress on company objectives in the areas of talent acquisition, partnerships, customer support, funding.• Directed project and investment strategy to pursue product and revenue milestones. • Stood up framework for governance, systems and policies to support company interactions and culture, as well as administrative capabilities for finance, IT, HR, payroll and benefits, finance and legal basics.

Washington, Dc, Us

Practice Manager for Business Affairs Forum, IT Forum, Ask EAB 2013-2018• Program management: Oversight of flagship membership network serving university CFOs: business impact responsibility (sales, marketing, budgeting) and product delivery (research agenda and writing publications, management of supporting consultant team). Innovations include cost/productivity benchmarking; project templates. Launched new program for university chief information officers; growth exceeded goals and set new pace for program introductions.• Top scores for public speaking at EAB-hosted events, client sessions, and industry conferences.• Oversight of Ask EAB department, accountable for on-demand research and talent pipeline• Yearlong partnership supporting general manager to improve operational effectiveness; rolled out processes and workflows that allowed department to scale efficiently during rapid growth phase.

Arlington, Va, Us

Led market introductions for CEB's products through product assessments, regional analysis, client segmentation.- Created product roadmap for APAC markets- Accountable for achieving revenue growth targets; build and manage budgets- Created strategy for positioning, competitive response, sales/service operations- Performed market assessment and project management for product introductions

Arlington, Va, Us

Account management and direct sales of networking/advisory services, tailored to the needs of Chief Information Officers and their direct reports (heads of infrastructure, applications, information security enterprise architecture, and PMO). Focused on building value for CEB’s clients through delivering targeted services to support their objectives. Achieved revenue targets via opportunity prioritization, deep product knowledge, high service levels, and resource leverage.- Managed all elements of the commercial cycle (territory planning, account planning, prospecting, visit scheduling, value pitch, proposal creation, negotiation, deal closure for new business; ongoing service, relationship building and renewals for existing clients.) Interacted daily with senior executives at Fortune 500 firms, providing guidance on peer/industry trends relevant to their critical management decisions.- Internal contributions included sales operations improvements via improved end-user adoption of CRM (salesforce) capabilities; development of scalable customer communications; building the culture of the San Francisco office.

Arlington, Va, Us

Oversight of business unit operations in direct support of the General Manager for CEB's fast-growing Information Technology practice area.- Served as Chief of Staff for major division and its General Manager; drove strategic planning cycles and follow-on plans, created and managed budget, stewarded workforce planning, and invested in boosting department culture (this means organizing blowout parties, basically). Ongoing ownership of multiple large projects with accountability for outcomes.- Drove activities of leadership team against execution of priority projects; managed rolling agendas of management meetings and cyclical summits; supported follow-through on commitments. - Concurrently, retained duties described below (staff and department oversight) for global client support and web teams.

Arlington, Va, Us

- Responding to market forces, redesigned and executed a product repositioning for the customized client research offering; simplified and standardized product portfolio, set new management metrics, led communications and department reorganization.- Led the company’s pilot research and web staff in India and supported the incubation of local CEB processes, infrastructure and culture. Created communication frameworks, collaboration processes and staff development alternatives for the distributed team (across offices: Washington, D.C., London, Delhi).- Managed up to nine direct reports (total in organization: 45 staff) across geographies; stewarded professional development plans, promotion ramps and succession scenarios for each.- Managed the department’s web team as the web superseded all other marketing channels for our customers. - Introduced web governance mechanisms (e.g., key performance indicators and service catalogs).

Houston, Texas, Us

Global product management for a family of computer server products through their lifecycles; responsibilities included: - Liaising with technical development teams to evaluate and confirm technical features- Securing market research via focus groups and other vendors- Coordinating regularly with supply chain partners at five global production facilities- Executing roll-out and end-of-life operations for product transitions- Handling competitive intelligence, forecasting, pricing and financial analysis

Washington, District Of Columbia, Us

Growing responsibilities during tenure at Advisory Board spanned delivery of customized research projects, participation in client contract renewal negotiations, and management of analyst research pool.

Mba, Marketing

Ba, History

Education record