Ladonna Lopez
Normal
Summary
Process-focused leader with over 30 years of experience driving operational excellence through workflow optimization, budget management, and strategic governance. Recognized as a trusted business partner and advisor to senior leadership, with a proven ability to lead cross-functional teams, implement process improvements, and deliver cost-saving initiatives aligned with enterprise goals. Expertise spans Operations, Marketing, Creative Agency Management, Underwriting, and Information Technology. Demonstrated success in stakeholder engagement, regulatory compliance, and team development, with a strong track record of integrating strategies across diverse business units while optimizing enterprise spend. Seasoned Business Operations Consultant with background in identifying business inefficiencies and implementing sustainable solutions. Strengths include strategic planning, process improvement, change management and cross-functional team leadership. Notably improved operational efficiency and profit margins in previous roles through innovative strategies and effective problem-solving.
Overview
35
35
years of professional experience
Work History
Business Operations Consultant – Marketing
Progressive Insurance
Cleveland
01.2024 - Current
- Optimized and managed non-working media and marketing-owned media budgets, implementing structured tracking and reporting processes that improved visibility and enabled proactive reinvestment strategies—delivering a 7% under-budget performance, an improvement from 11% under budget the prior year.
- Facilitated monthly budget review meetings to drive transparency and collaboration, resulting in faster decision-making and improved financial discipline across marketing operations.
- Led multiple high-impact marketing workstreams supporting Gallup Actions and Commitments, standardizing team engagement practices and creating Team 1-Pagers that enhanced clarity, alignment, and readiness for future initiatives.
- Accelerated PO approval timelines by nearly two months through cross-functional collaboration with budget owners and procurement, securing critical vendor agreements ahead of schedule and increasing operational agility.
Director – Marketing/Agency
State Farm Insurance Companies
Bloomington
01.2014 - 12.2023
- Successfully led 3 Marketing Production teams with 20+ associates responsible for implementing several direct mail and email marketing campaigns.
- Responsible for all direct mail print vendors, successfully negotiating contracts resulting in a cost savings of over $150K annually for the organization.
- Envisioned, created, and executed interdepartmental governance and budget controls to effectively manage the 2022 Marketing & Sales budget (1B+).
- Brought alignment to business specific marketing finance and budgeting by owning and building processes for allocation and tracking of the Marketing & Sales budget in real time.
- Built strategies for feedback and communication loops for all budget controls deployed while ensuring expected value is returned and duplication/conflicts were avoided.
- Led team to build out the Marketing 2023 annual planning process, including investment philosophy and plan.
- Responsible for driving weekly accountability conversations with Marketing Executive to track and monitor performance of spend to drive results and take actions in alignment with year-end activities and enterprise direction.
- Ongoing consulting and input into budgeting decisions with key stakeholders in finance, planning and analysis, and legal.
- Responsible for operational dashboards and tools for Agency & Marketing leadership to monitor performance and drive results.
- Established strategic creative agency management goals in alignment with procurement and legal teams to ensure the best terms and relationships are satisfying State Farm marketing organization needs.
- Responsible for developing and executing on optimal marketing/creative agency performance model with a fully integrated approach to creative agency management.
Director - Multicultural Business Development Group (MBDG) / Marketing
State Farm Insurance Companies
Bloomington
01.2011 - 12.2014
- Served as key advisor to help create the first ever Integrated Hispanic Growth Strategy.
- Coached independent agents, with a focus on optimizing local marketing and sales initiatives resulting in a comprehensive strategy based on agent and customer insights.
- Served as a lead on the Enterprise Marketing Structure Study to infuse the MBDG learnings and guided the team through transition of MBDG into Marketing.
- Created, coordinated, and led large cross-functional team, including 15+ core team members, 100+ stakeholders, and 7 external consultants to synthesize over 70 marketing processes that delivered a comprehensive process framework as well as Key Performance Indicators to monitor success of the newly established Enterprise Marketing Structure processes and change management efforts.
Director – Property & Casualty Underwriting - P&C ONE
State Farm Insurance Companies
Bloomington
01.2009 - 12.2011
- Assisted with the research, writing, editing, and design of the Property & Casualty (P&C ONE) Program Management Office.
- Sourced for and onboarded a small team assembled from both Enterprise Technology and Underwriting to ensure alignment of cross departmental efforts as we began to build the larger team.
- Established framework for the Project Management discipline to be formalized in Underwriting to enable well-ordered and holistic execution of P&C ONE efforts.
- Collaborated with Portfolio Managers to monitor the P&C ONE budget and made recommendations on a quarterly basis to effectively “scrape” budgets as appropriate.
- Recruited and Onboarded 5 Project Managers into P&C Underwriting with specific focus on P&C ONE to further optimize the Program Management Office and successfully transitioned the P&C ONE Program Management Office to Enterprise Planning, including all processes and strategic initiatives and all resources to further support the enterprise.
Staff Manager – Enterprise Technology / Business Analyst – Fire Systems
State Farm Insurance Companies
Bloomington
01.2004 - 12.2009
- Provided Staff Manager support and reported directly to Systems Vice President.
- Collaborated with Systems Executive as a thought partner on various cross functional efforts.
- Partnered with key stakeholders to evaluate early iterations of cloud computing for State Farm to build out the plan to bring Salesforce to the organization.
- Collaborated with various stakeholders and partnered to design and build State Farm’s first ever “Hack Day”.
- Created CEO materials for World Economic Forum with specific emphasis on key business partners who would also be in attendance (CEOs from IBM, FB, Dell, HP, etc).
- Led a team of interns to redesign the Systems Internet site and went live on time and $30K under budget.
- Lead Business Analyst on the CMP Rewrite – designed, tested, and successfully deployed multiple system enhancements.
Personal Lines Section Manager / Commercial Lines Team Manager – Great Western Zone (Phoenix)
State Farm Insurance Companies
Phoenix
01.1991 - 12.2004
- Represented State Farm – testifying at Senate Hearings as State Farm began to use credit in underwriting.
- Partnered with P&C Underwriting to build Wildfire Loss Mitigation Strategies and help lead a select group of agents to focus on small business.
- Led teams to achieve improvement in Adjusted Operating Profit – AZ moved from last in the nation to #1 in the nation during my tenure as a Section Manager (Rate increases/Enhanced Reunderwriting activities).
- Oversaw the implementation of unprecedented double digit rate increases resulting in numerous internal and external change management activities including heightened DOI engagement.
- Implemented the “Fire Information Line” (well in advance of the Enterprise Customer Care Center) to centralize service calls into underwriting – reducing wait time for agents and speed to policy issuance.
Education
Associate in General Insurance -
American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters
05.2024
Bachelor of Arts - Sociology with Emphasis in Criminal Justice, Minor in Psychology
University of Northern Colorado
Greeley, CO01.1995
Associate in Arts - Greeley, CO
Aims Community College
Greeley, CO01.1990
Skills
- Stakeholder Management
- Strategic Planning & Governance
- Communication & Collaboration
- Budget Management & Optimization
- Coaching & Mentorship
- Presentations & Facilitation
- Adaptive Thinking & Thought Leadership
Community Volunteer
Client Services Volunteer, Home Sweet Home Ministries (Homeless Shelter), 01/2023, Present
Volunteer Leadership
- Board Member, Hispanic Employee Resource Organization (State Farm), 01/2004, 12/2009
- Board Member, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (State Farm), 01/2003, 12/2004
Timeline
Business Operations Consultant – Marketing
Progressive Insurance
01.2024 - Current
Director – Marketing/Agency
State Farm Insurance Companies
01.2014 - 12.2023
Director - Multicultural Business Development Group (MBDG) / Marketing
State Farm Insurance Companies
01.2011 - 12.2014
Director – Property & Casualty Underwriting - P&C ONE
State Farm Insurance Companies
01.2009 - 12.2011
Staff Manager – Enterprise Technology / Business Analyst – Fire Systems
State Farm Insurance Companies
01.2004 - 12.2009
Personal Lines Section Manager / Commercial Lines Team Manager – Great Western Zone (Phoenix)
State Farm Insurance Companies
01.1991 - 12.2004
Associate in General Insurance -
American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters
Bachelor of Arts - Sociology with Emphasis in Criminal Justice, Minor in Psychology
University of Northern Colorado
Associate in Arts - Greeley, CO
Aims Community College