Leah Severance

• Invested in and renovated investment properties.
• Created project plans with established timelines, assigned to appropriate teams and managed workflow throughout construction.
• Managed contracts with vendors and suppliers and communicated expected deliverables.

Responsible for multiple Program Management areas during my 8 1/2 years at AWS:

• Vendor management - Negotiated global contracts, integrated systems, and spearheaded project plans & development. Led vendor meetings to review business results and communicate new and ongoing priorities.
• Training - Designed extensive certification training, presentations, and reference library for AWS employees. Planned and delivered training sessions to improve employee effectiveness and address areas of weakness.
• Strategy - Onboarded the AWS Certification program, key team lead in expanding it from 1K to over 500K AWS certification holders. Contributed to corporate strategy initiatives and deliverables across teams through accountability, communication and reporting.
• Data Analysis - Analyzed business performance data and forecasted business results for upper management.
• Global Event Management – Planned and executed large-scale internal and external events. Created and managed budgets for travel, training and team-building activities.
• Hiring & Mentorship - Interviewed prospective employees and provided input to HR on hiring decisions. Provided leadership, insight and mentoring to newly hired employees to supply knowledge of various company programs.
• Communication - Collaborated with marketing on customer-facing communications and measured performance across campaigns and events.
• Customer Support - Established customer response templates and resolved customer inquiries requiring management-level escalation.

Program Management:

• Managed new client implementations, system enhancements, and operational support.
• Fostered strategic client relations and acted as a business consultant to grow client programs.
• Used Agile methodologies to support ongoing client system enhancements, advocating for my clients in prioritization of internal development resources.
• Oversaw 14 clients - required extreme multi-tasking, prioritization, and attention to detail.

Data Analysis:

• Analyzed operational performance to identify pain points and provided actionable solutions to management.
• Created dynamic reports that measured results against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

• Supported clients in raising brand recognition through strategic marketing.
• Recommended, planned and implemented promotional strategies to increase market share.
• Providing targeted marketing campaigns for local businesses.

• Managed client relationships and promoted new sales into the existing account base.
• Developed programs with channel and business partners to secure new business opportunities.
• Answered product questions with up-to-date knowledge of sales and promotions.
• Created website content, e-mail campaigns, newsletters, and marketing collateral.

• Developed strategic sales programs for SAS' largest revenue-generating business unit.
• Aligned key resources (leadership, marketing, sales, and development) across SAS in support of the business unit's objectives.
• Worked with analysts on projects that increased credibility and drove additional sales revenue.
• Planned and executed SAS' largest global industry sales training event involving over twenty countries.

• Planned SAS' global go-to-market strategies for the communications’ industry solution portfolio.
• Pioneered a business model that tripled sales, later adopted across all of SAS’ industries.
• Presented new offerings globally to industry experts, executives, analysts, and press.
• Oversaw global communications’ industry website messaging and marketing collateral.

Held ever-increasing roles over my 12 years at Nortel:

Account Development Manager:

• Developed competitive commercial sales proposals that integrated hardware, software, and services pricing strategies for $1.8 billion account.
• Facilitated cross-functional teams to manage all necessary components of the proposal.
• Presented and negotiated proposals to upper level management.

Operations – New Product and Process Integration:

• Drove process improvements in operational effectiveness, resulting in first ISO-9000 compliancy.
• Developed comprehensive operational guidelines that streamlined the scheduling process.
• Trained fifty-member marketing operations team on new products and scheduling procedures.

Senior Order Specialist:

• Designed customer proposals and financial spreadsheets.

Customer Service Specialist:

• Coordinated customers’ orders and schedules to meet deadlines and internal financial targets.