Laura Shapiro
Northbrook
Summary
Accomplished Operational Strategic Director with a financial background and a proven track record of successfully leading large organizational projects, scaling revenue, supporting creating of go to marketing collateral, and managing the execution of C-Suite growth initiatives for global Fortune 500 companies.
Overview
15
15
years of professional experience
Work History
Director, Reinsurance Me (Consulting, Operational and Commercial Strategy and Execution)
Aon
Chicago
10.2023 - Current
- I support the growth product strategy and execution plan for Aon’s reinsurance solution line.
- As part of the strategy and execution team, I serve in a chief of staff capacity to the Global Growth Product Leader overseeing the Casualty, Property, Credit, and Crop teams.
- I am responsible for managing gross revenue targets of $2 billion for 2025.
- My role involves bringing together product leaders, sales teams, and marketing to support all growth initiatives to make sure product teams meet their goals.
- I also help with go to market planning and execution for new solutions.
Director, Global Equity Services and Governance (Consulting, Operational and Commercial Strategy and Execution)
Aon
Chicago
10.2023 - 10.2024
- Assist Senior Leaders by providing Strategic Operational support of financial reporting, creating streamlined pipeline tracking, getting thought leadership posted on Aon’s Human Capital Solutions webpage and social media site, and leading ad hoc requests.
- Optimized the workflow and enhanced the team’s efficiency by creating a new process flow and managing the teams capacity.
- This enabled the group to assign resources to client project requests in a streamlined manner, ensuring that we utilize the team's skills effectively and deliver high-quality results to our clients.
- Manage and provide operational guidance for the Philippines Equity Team that supports the NA Equity team.
- Responsible for providing Account Relationship services and managing client project deliverables for Equity Solutions including end-to-end Pay Versus Performance Analytics with Proxy disclosures, Valuation analysis, Award Certifications, M&A modifications, and ad hoc request.
- Continued from previous role, working with Global Partners to lead the Commercial Sales and Marketing plan for Aon’s NEW Digital Business Insights (DBI) Platform, which included overall go to market planning, identifying marketing resourcing, working with Senior Leaders to push initiative to AEs, data tracking, contract management, project management, etc., and level of support to the group.
- Lead a global project of getting all ESG leads and opportunities into CRM platform (Aon Connect), building out revenue pipeline reporting to gain better insights into our wins, losses, and plan to scale.
- Also worked on change management of getting all ESG team members on to Aon Connect and adequately using the system.
- Led all Core+ Growth Initiative projects for both ESG (Globally) and DBI (NA), which included building Internal and External marketing tools for our Enterprise Client Group, mid-market client groups, and thought leadership for Aon client events.
- Led R&D projects and created billable client collateral by providing insights on trending ESG topics (i.e. Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) regulations and its potential impact on a specific client).
- Managed all marketing campaigns, initiatives, and external sponsorships investments.
- Planned and attended various events globally (Australia, United Kingdom, and United States) to help strategically commercialize ESG capabilities.
Manager, Strategic Project Manager – Office of The President, Aon United Solutions
Aon
Chicago
07.2021 - 10.2022
- Managed and facilitated strategic project management initiatives to execute Aon Executive Committee's Global Core+ priorities and develop Aon's Industry Operational Lens Strategy, driving the organization's strategic revenue growth and setting scalable growth metrics using the 3 horizon method strategy.
- Led, collaborated with, and provided support to Aon's C-Suite and global solution leaders to develop and implement a comprehensive approach for building out Global Industry Teams.
- Supervised and collaborated with Global Regional and Solution leaders to develop marketing tools for our client-facing colleagues around Aon's growth initiatives.
- This involved creating a comprehensive set of resources, such as value propositions and playbooks, capabilities and innovation plans, and distribution plans, to enhance our services and better serve our clients.
- Worked with Growth Ops and ACIA team to build out one source of truth proof of concept for Industry tagging within Aon Connect and the associated Change Management Process plan.
- Also, worked with the group to ensure data from Aon connect flows into ACIA Tools properly.
- Assisted with driving the overall ESG Commercial plan from a Core+ perspective and help drive Commercial Sales and Marketing plan for the Digital Platform form to market and reach the goal of obtaining 50 clients by the end of 2022.
- Help with overall planning, marketing, working with Senior Leaders to push initiative to AEs, data tracking, contract management, project management, etc., and level of support to the group.
- Managed direct report - Senior Strategic Project Manager.
Accounting Manager, US Controllership – Reinsurance, Retirement, and Health Revenue Lines
Aon
Chicago
10.2018 - 07.2021
- Co/Oversee full accounting close processes for Aon Solution lines including Revenue Contract Review, BS variance analysis, Working Capital forecasting, and Senior Management reporting.
- Solely managed full accounting close cycle and audit responsibilities for Aon Securities Broker Dealer Entity, including final Controllership review before submitting to Senior Management to file financials to FINRA.
- Co-Lead / Project Manager for Global Cost Center Cleanup and Work tag assignments to improve financial reporting metrics as Aon United.
- Global Intercompany Lead Design and Project Manager for implementing new billing system on Workday Financials for Retirement and Health Revenue Lines.
- Lead Accounting Project Manager for US Legal Entity Consolidation on Reinsurance, Retirement and Health Solution lines.
- Lead Project Manager on Reinsurance, Retirement and Health Solution lines for handling Mergers, Acquisition, and Divesture Accounting.
- US Controllership / Global Project Lead for implementing Intercompany Pages on Workday Financials.
- Co-Lead settlement project for $500M of residual intercompany balances for 55 business units with global counterparts and ensure variances were under the minimum threshold due to divested Outsourcing line of business.
- Co-Lead project team to implement new internal Intercompany Policy to provide guidance in recognizing and resolving intercompany matters.
Senior Accountant, Revenue Accounting
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare
Chicago
05.2013 - 02.2016
- Prepare and analyze NMHC consolidated revenue reports for upper management that examines each business units Net Patient Revenue, Days in A/R, other operating income, and bad debit / charity performance.
- Record month-end Revenue and Contractual for patient and corporate activity.
- Prepare monthly, quarterly, and yearly audit work papers and provide explanations for variances that does not meet the threshold.
- Assist with managing Staff Accountant and billing process responsibilities for corporate 3rd party customers and international patients.
Senior Accountant, Property Accounting
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare
Chicago
05.2013 - 02.2016
- Managed all month-end responsibilities within Property Accounting which includes analyzing CIP, placing simple and complex assets in service, calculating and recording depreciation for over $150M of assets, review and record entries associated with tenant incentives, recording accruals and adjusting journal entries, completing asset rollforward reports and variance analysis of BS and P&L.
- Reviewed and provided Capital vs Expense budget recommendations to upper management for proposed capital purchases over $5K.
Accounting & Finance Staffing Consultant/Talent Acquisition Specialist
Marco & Associates
Chicago
06.2012 - 03.2013
- Identified, recruited, interviewed and managed relationships with top professionals with a background in corporate accounting, corporate finance, non-profit accounting, property accounting, payroll, tax, internal and external audit, and treasury.
- Held Accounting trainings for coworkers on accounting technical functions and processes in order for them to better understand our clients’ needs.
- Performed ad hoc performance reports for the organization, per managements request, to improve business operations and profitability.
Senior Intercompany Analyst/ Senior General Ledger Analyst
Heidrick and Struggles
Chicago
03.2011 - 06.2012
- Oversaw global corporations’ Intercompany processes including monthly and quarterly close responsibilities for all Heidrick business units.
- Managed and produced reconciliations for all Intercompany accounts (over 500 total accounts) and confirmed balances with local officers to make sure all transactions followed GAAP and statuary regulations working in both U.S and foreign currency.
- Executed and managed process for recording corporation’s North American offices PTO and 401K accruals including forfeitures.
Global Oil Americas, Senior Intercompany Analyst / Senior Cash Analyst
BP (British Petroleum)
Chicago
06.2010 - 03.2011
- Managed operations for all Intercompany duties including month, quarter, and year end processes for four separate BP entities.
- Prepared work papers for quarterly/annual close and ensure all transactions were in accordance with GAAP and international statutory laws.
- Assisted team lead with supervising work completed by 3 cash analysts.
Education
Graduate Classes Accreditation -
University of Illinois at Springfield
Springfield, IL01.2009
Dual Bachelor of Arts - Accounting and Business Administration / Capital Scholars Honors Program
University of Illinois at Springfield
Springfield, IL01.2008
Skills
- Workday
- PeopleSoft
- Epic
- Hyperion
- SAP
- Intact
- QuickBooks
- Microsoft Office Suite
- RCA
- Crystal Reports
- Lawson
- Peachtree
- SMS
References
Available Upon Request
Professional Community Involvement
- Aon’s North America Mental Health BRG, 03/2021, Present, BRG Programing Leader, 03/2024, Present, Founding Member and Leader, 03/2021, 12/2022
- Project Management International, Chicago Chapter, 01/2021, 12/2021, Lead Project Manager – Virtual 2021 Leadership Forum Event
- Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland & Northwest Indiana (RMHC-CNI) / Red Shoe Society of Chicago (RSS-CNI), 08/2019, 12/2023, Board of Directors, 01/2022, 12/2023, Executive Co-Chair, 01/2022, 12/2023, Social Media Manager, 03/2021, 01/2022, Co-Chair of Family Enrichment, 01/2021, 01/2022, Co-Chair of Corporate Partnerships, 09/2019, 01/2021
Timeline
Director, Reinsurance Me (Consulting, Operational and Commercial Strategy and Execution)
Aon
10.2023 - Current
Director, Global Equity Services and Governance (Consulting, Operational and Commercial Strategy and Execution)
Aon
10.2023 - 10.2024
Manager, Strategic Project Manager – Office of The President, Aon United Solutions
Aon
07.2021 - 10.2022
Accounting Manager, US Controllership – Reinsurance, Retirement, and Health Revenue Lines
Aon
10.2018 - 07.2021
Senior Accountant, Revenue Accounting
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare
05.2013 - 02.2016
Senior Accountant, Property Accounting
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare
05.2013 - 02.2016
Accounting & Finance Staffing Consultant/Talent Acquisition Specialist
Marco & Associates
06.2012 - 03.2013
Senior Intercompany Analyst/ Senior General Ledger Analyst
Heidrick and Struggles
03.2011 - 06.2012
Global Oil Americas, Senior Intercompany Analyst / Senior Cash Analyst
BP (British Petroleum)
06.2010 - 03.2011
Graduate Classes Accreditation -
University of Illinois at Springfield
Dual Bachelor of Arts - Accounting and Business Administration / Capital Scholars Honors Program
University of Illinois at Springfield