Ben Candea

Experience

• 

  LAC Consulting

  Principal / Founder

  Dec 2023 - Present

  I'm a chief of staff, expert generalist, and consultant who frees up to 20 hours a week for early-stage CEOs and founders so they can focus on growth. I help leaders drowning in never-ending to-dos shed operational responsibilities, enabling them to prioritize their time and energy on their most important decisions. As a fractional chief of staff, I lead special projects and optimize processes while embedded in mission-driven companies ranging from bootstrapped to Series B. I have 10+ years of experience executing leadership-sponsored initiatives for companies in climate tech, cybersecurity, and media.

  • Increases several CEOs’ available time for executive work by up to 20 hrs/wk by leading special projects, supporting business operations, and aligning executives and cross-functional teams
  • Manages company-wide goal setting and OKRs, collaborating with executives and team leads to define, track, and measure progress, ensuring transparency and accountability for execution and results
  • Supports investor relations by drafting agendas and content for board meetings, managing fundraising due diligence requests, and liaising with current and prospective investors
  • Partnered with CEO in application to state innovation program, including drafting content and managing consultants and stakeholders; when awarded, project was company’s most valuable booking by 9x
  • Reduced the monthly financial close timeline by 53% to a 7-day cycle in partnership with CFO
  • Led sales operations transformation project for Series B company, instituting Hubspot as their CRM and reducing time spent on building revenue forecasts by 90%
  • Created company’s first inventory forecast and integrated it into financial model, improving on previous one-off procurements, providing better understanding of hardware and cash flow needs against sales pipeline
• 

  Arcadia

  Strategy and Operations Manager

  Sep 2022 - Present

  Arcadia is a climate technology company enabling a zero-carbon economy. Its Arc platform combines easy-to-use data and APIs under one roof to allow any company to act on its environmental impact and build the next generation of energy products and climate tech solutions. Arcadia also manages the nation’s leading community solar program with more than 2 GWs under management.

  • Led community solar revenue forecasting and sales reporting, providing president and other senior executives with critical insights to drive over $60M in revenue
  • Built a business intelligence dashboard used by 100+ employees, ensuring data integrity and consistency across various sources
  • Created comprehensive supply-demand balance truth by translating business needs into data requirements and directing data scientists in building out data architecture
  • Reduced monthly forecast-to-actuals variance by 80% by enhancing cross-functional collaboration, improving forecast methodology, and defining data requirements
  • Streamlined executive report drafting from 10 hours/week to 2 by optimizing data inputs, managing SQL queries, scaling analyses, and automating workflows
  • Supported business development team in securing $500M+ in new supply deals through thorough market and data analyzes and accurate revenue forecasts
• 

  ESPN

  Senior Manager, Corporate Strategy

  Feb 2021 - Mar 2022

  ESPN is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities.

  • Developed long-range and annual operating plans for $2.9B profit business by collaborating with stakeholders, analyzing diverse datasets, and presenting recommendations to C-level executives
  • Persuasively recommended discontinuing email newsletter that consumed 100+ employee hours but generated <$100k annually by modeling P&L scenarios and analyzing market dynamics
  • Assisted C-level executives in selling controlling stake in the X Games by conducting due diligence, providing data room materials, evaluating bidder financial models, and presenting recommendations
  • Supported C-level executives in negotiating $100M+ broadcast rights deal by researching market dynamics, viewership, and fandom and presenting findings
  • Secured $100k for TikTok social media expansion by leading early career production associates in designing audience expansion project and presenting proposal to C-level executives
• 

  ESPN

  Senior Manager, Digital Operations and Strategy (defacto Deputy Chief of Staff)

  May 2019 - Feb 2021

  ESPN is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities.

  • Created and maintained business intelligence dashboards for core products and digital content CEO-sponsored initiatives that were used by 1,000+ employees
  • Achieved 12-straight months of at least 10% YoY user growth for Apple News by setting and executing content strategies, managing OKRs, defining product requirements, and tracking KPIs
  • Produced first-of-its-kind executive report for digital content CEO that scored user metrics across all platforms, widely used to gauge audience growth
  • Improved report output for three cross-functional teams by 25% by developing a project management system for streamlined data evaluation
  • Secured content distribution deals worth $250K+ ARR by effectively managing vendor contracts, forecasting ROI, and collaborating with cross-functional teams
• 

  ABC News

  Digital Content Distribution Strategy Editor

  Jan 2014 - May 2019

  ABC News is the news division of the American television network ABC.

  • Executed growth strategy for digital content viewed by 100M+ users monthly by programming content, collaborating with distribution partners, and coordinating event planning
  • Acted as defacto product manager for three internal tools used by 100+ employees
  • Managed comprehensive onboarding and training programs and maintained team knowledge management for smooth editor transitions
  • Increased headline click-through rates by 30% through effective A/B testing and actionable recommendations
  • Boosted weekend digital team’s content output by 10% by building relationships with broadcast and newsroom partners despite fewer reporter resources than the year prior
  • Reduced breaking news publication time by 30% to 60 seconds by partnering with product team to improve tools and streamline processes