Barb Olson
ONIT, INC.
Milwaukee,WI
24
years of professional experience
Commercial contracts executive with extensive experience leading complex technology and SaaS transactions, contracting organizations and business process transformation. Progressive leadership career from contracts specialist through VP-level roles, supporting businesses of all sizes. Known for finding common ground, building scalable contracting functions, and turning complex or inefficient processes into faster, clearer paths to revenue.
Work History
VP, Commercial & Procurement Contracts
2 Years 4 Months- Lead commercial contracting for a legal technology company supporting small, mid-market and enterprise customers.
- Personally negotiate and oversee hundreds of contracts annually with a focus on the company's most complex commercial transactions.
- Negotiate DORA amendments for banking and financial-services customers, aligning commercial agreements with regulatory requirements while balancing customer obligations, operational impact, and business risk.
- Establish and maintain strong relationships with customers, vendors, and strategic partners.
- Partner with C-suite and mid-level managers to structure deals, resolve escalated issues, and balance commercial objectives with business risk.
- Lead a contracts organization of four direct reports, including one manager who leads a team of two; established priorities, coached team members, and drove consistent contracting practices.
- Implement CLM in partnership with VP Legal Operations. Implement restricted party screening tool.
- Leveraged technology to automate workflows and streamline processes, resulting in increased productivity and cost savings across the organization.
- Collaborated with stakeholders to align project goals with organizational vision and mission objectives.
- Cultivated strong relationships with key stakeholders, including customers and vendors to promote collaboration and long-term success.
VP, Contracts
7 Years 1 Month- Led contracts activities for a global supply-chain software company with approximately $630M in revenue, supporting a higher-value enterprise customer base.
- Progressed to VP, Contracts after serving as AVP, Senior Director, and Director, reflecting increasing scope, leadership responsibility, and organizational trust.
- Regularly handled complex commercial transactions and partnered with senior business stakeholders to develop negotiation strategy and resolve material contract issues.
- Created and implemented contract templates, negotiation playbooks, fallback positions, approval matrices, and review thresholds to improve consistency, efficiency, and decision-making.
- At departure, led the Contracts team of 20 professionals within the Legal organization.
- Global supply-chain software company with approximately $630M in revenue
Senior Contracts Administrator
11 Months- Drafted, negotiated, and managed workflow for domestic and international revenue contracts, NDAs, vendor, manufacturing, and licensing agreements.
- Updated and developed master templates and supported business functions on contract questions; partnered with attorneys to ensure corporate policies were incorporated into contractual documents.
- Redrafted the mutual NDA using simplified language to improve readability and understanding.
- Handled more than 165 contracts, ranging from straightforward review through full negotiation.
Director, Contract Administration
2 Years 9 Months- Developed, reviewed, drafted, and negotiated confidentiality, software license, SaaS, vendor, partner, and subcontractor agreements.
- Developed negotiation strategies with senior management and worked with Finance to support revenue-recognition requirements.
- Updated company templates for license, hosting, and SaaS agreements and provided training on contracting processes.
- As sole contracts manager, prioritized more than 430 agreements in 2016—35% more than in 2015.
- Supported acquisition activities, including due diligence, data-room management and disclosure schedules.
Director, Corporate Agreements; Senior Contract Specialist
10 Years 11 Months- Reviewed, drafted, and negotiated agreements with customers, partners, and vendors across the Americas, EMEA and APAC.
- Oversaw contracts administration and assigned work to a team of contract specialists and a legal intern; directly supervised two contract specialists.
- Provided training to Legal and Sales team members and took part in annual Legal Department budget preparation.
- Mentored junior staff, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and professional growth.
- Successfully negotiated the company's highest software license and services deal, valued at $20M.
- Worked with customers and partners across the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Poland.
- Earned five Winner's Circle invitations and received JDA's Annual Excellence Award for 2012.
Education
B.A. - Psychology
- Technology: CLM
- Salesforce
- DocuSign
- Claude
- ChatGPT
- Microsoft Office
Skills
Commercial Contract Negotiation
SaaS & Software Transactions
Contract Strategy & Risk Allocation
Contract Operations & Team Leadership
Templates
Playbooks & Fallbacks
Approval Matrices & Review Thresholds
Timeline
VP, Commercial & Procurement Contracts
ONIT, INC.
06.2024 - 10.2026Read More
VP, Contracts
E2OPEN, LLC
05.2017 - 06.2024Read More
Senior Contracts Administrator
SHORETEL, INC.
06.2016 - 05.2017Read More
Director, Contract Administration
EMPOWER SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, INC. / KRONOS, INC.
08.2013 - 05.2016Read More
Director, Corporate Agreements; Senior Contract Specialist
BLUE YONDER GROUP, INC. (FKA REDPRAIRIE CORPORATION / JDA SOFTWARE, INC.)
09.2002 - 08.2013Read More
University of Wisconsin–Parkside
B.A. from Psychology
Read More