Laura Merling

From Idea to Impact

I have a passion for looking at the big picture, putting puzzle pieces together, and solving big problems.   


 It is amazing what you find when take a moment to look around you.

Experience

Forward-thinking strategist who blends a strong business acumen with technical expertise for envisioning, executing and delivering business outcomes.

My approach is grounded in people, processes, and technology as a framework to deliver near-term business value and create long-term organizational resilience. 

New Business Building

Experience creating business units and driving  early P&L,  as well as leading +100 million dollar business units.  

Transformation

Proven track record of driving technology led transformation, creating efficiency in complex operating models, and leading organizational change, across telco, auto, aerospace, and financial services.

Global Team Leadership

Built and managed global business units including sales, marketing, product, and engineering across 8 countries.  Lived in Hamburg Germany and Paris France.

Collaboration

Experience getting buy-in and results for large-scale new business initiatives through cross-functional management structures. 


Corporate Innovation

Arvest Bank - Delivered early use AI cases in Fraud Prevention on Google Vertex, and GenAI use cases in employee support. Custom built commercial loan origination platform on Salesforce.

Ford Motor Company - Defined and led team for first autonomous vehicle pizza delivery trial in partnership with Dominos and for IOT based package delivery to the trunk of a car.

AT&T - Managed Enterprise Innovation Program; 5 success product products (Food/Food Services, Retail, and Financial Services).

Pepsi Cola NA - Lead product management and roll out of mobile devices to manage beverage inventory, and track and manage parts inventory.


New Business and Technology Creation

AT&T - Defined and implemented one of the Top 10 Bell Lab projects; Cloud Based Voice Network Services.

Alcatel-Lucent/Nokia - Led product and engineering team to deliver Cloud API Management Platform for AT&T and T-Mobile.

Mashery - Established early go-to-market including business model, first enterprise customers, as well as sales and service teams for first SaaS based API Management Platform.

Krugle - Established product management organization for Cloud Service for Open Source Code Search.

Intershop - Led product and business development team for first SaaS based e-Commerce Platform; took company through IPO.

Sybase - Led product team for Application Server technology and Powerbuilder Developer Tool integration.


Board Member, Investor, and Advisor

Board and Advisor

Simulytic - Advisor. Autonomous vehicle risk scoring platform.

Arvest Bank - Board and Executive Committee member. Mid size regional bank with $27b in assets. 

CarTrawler - Board and Audit Committee member. Travel industry AI platform.

Investor and Advisor

Skully Helmets - Investor. Heads up display motorcycle helmets. 

Butterfleye - Investor and Advisor. Smart system home monitoring device.

Alluvium.io - Advisor.  Predictive maintenance analytics platform.

Decooda - Advisor.  Cognitive Text Mining and Big Data analytics platform.