Discover how to hire a COO in 8 steps to drive your business forward. Learn key hiring strategies and red flags to avoid to ensure a perfect fit.
Aarti Bhatnagar
2x Chief of Staff turned Executive Coach
Aarti is an Executive Coach for Chiefs of Staff and Operating Leaders from companies like ServiceNow, KPMG, Guild, Pinterest, and Patreon. She has been a Chief of Staff twice - more recently at Guild Education for the Co-founder and President of the Learning Marketplace department. Prior to that, she was Chief of Staff at Change.org for the Product Development team. Aarti is a seasoned Operating Leader who started her career in management consulting and has since worked for EdTech and social impact organizations. She has over 15 years of operations, program management, and people leadership experience.
Work
On-The-Ground Work - EducationSuperHighway
https://www.educationsuperhighway.org/our-story/on-the-ground-work/Learn about how we were able to scale our teams by using data, creating self-service options, managing scope, and leveraging partners.
Experience
Aarti Bhatnagar Coaching & Consulting
Executive Coach & Founder
Jul 2023 - Present
Empowering aspiring and current Chiefs of Staff and Operating Leaders to take on the role with confidence - accessing their inner capacity to solve problems with creativity, clarity, and courage.
- In 4 months, have signed on and am working with 25 Chiefs of Staff and Operating Leaders from companies like Pinterest, Patreon, KPMG, and Service Now.
- Supporting founders source, hire, and onboard their next Chiefs of Staff.
- Primary Executive Coach for communities like Ask a Chief of Staff and the Chief of Staff Network.
- Leading sessions for leaders on Rhythm of Business building, Delegating, and Strategic Planning.
Guild
Chief of Staff
Jan 2021 - May 2023
At Guild, we help employers provide tuition-free education, skilling, and career mobility to their workforce.
- Business Operations Lead: Responsible for staff meetings, board decks, leadership meetings, and executive communications
- Strategic Initiatives: Led operational initiatives (e.g. creating an internal communications strategy, developing an enablement and knowledge management strategy, and leading culture/DEI efforts) and catalyzed business initiatives (e.g. developing a strat
- Thought Partnership: Provided staff sentiments, organizational restructure strategy, and candid feedback to the President
- Culture: Served as Chairperson for a 500+ person Employee Resource Group (ERG) dedicated to enhancing experiences for women in the workplace and served as Executive Sponsor for the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) ERG
- Leader of the People Operations’ 10-person team which unlocked the People Team’s ability to scale by managing/advancing systems and enacting data-driven solutions for the Talent Acquisition, Talent Management & Development, and Core HR (payroll, benefits,
- Driver of key cross-functional initiatives including Guild’s HR tech strategy and governance processes, a major HRIS transformation project, a headcount and associated budget planning revamp initiative, Guild’s diversity hiring strategy, and the managemen
Change.org
Chief of Staff and Product Operations
Feb 2019 - Nov 2020
The world's platform for change.
- Supported the CTO and VP of Product with running a 70+ person global Product Development (PD) organization by owning communications, process improvements, people development, and tool management
- Owned the execution of quarterly OKRs, initiative prioritizations, staff surveys, and board meeting preparations
- Facilitated weekly team kickoffs, executive team meetings, and leadership communications for PD staff
- Owned strategic initiatives such as implementing Confluence for stakeholder management, devising methods for increased user-centricity, running professional development initiatives, and hiring an EA for leadership time management
Educationsuperhighway
Program Director
Sep 2014 - Feb 2019
Closing the digital divide for the 18 million households that have access to the Internet but can't afford to connect.
- Led EducationSuperHighway’s Programs Team, made up of 20 cross-functional members
- Designed and owned all end-to-end program processes for our multi-year consulting services; 100 school districts were supported in year 1 and over 4000 were supported by year 4
- Served as the project lead for school district connectivity upgrades in 10 states; responsibilities include leading teams to achieve project milestones, strategizing optimal solutions for districts, and managing relationships with state agencies
- Analyzed a fiber build solution for 15 districts in Virginia which resulted in a 500% increase in bandwidth for only 15% more in cost; the results were featured by the White House
PwC
Advisory - Senior Associate
Jul 2011 - May 2013
PwC helps organizations and individuals create the value they're looking for. We're a network of firms in 157 countries.
- Advised a national airline on loyalty program strategies that resulted in $100M in annual savings; Assessed the financial impact of program changes to 30 partner alliances and developed material for contract negotiations with partners
- Created a data model, with 43 interviews and 1300 survey responses, to provide PwC's executive leadership team with internal investments options ($100M+) that could increase customer retention, acquisition, and share of wallet
- Co-founded PwC’s pro bono consulting service which solves operational and strategic challenges for local nonprofits
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