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Heidi Romero, CP APMP after a 9 year career in retail optical sales, Heidi Romero joined BMO Harris Bank (then M&I Bank) in 2004 as a Treasury Management Sales Associate for Business customers and Inside Sales. From there she was promoted to a Sales Associate for the Commercial and Mid-Market client base. In 2010 she was promoted to Officer and moved into a Senior Implementation and Portfolio Management role during the M&I/Harris Bank acquisition working with large corporate customers through the merger. In April 2014, Heidi joined the Proposal/RFP Team as a US Proposal Manager for the bank. She was then promoted to Assistant Vice President in January 2016. She has been an active member of APMP since 2014 and achieved her Foundation level accreditation in June 2015, as well as her Practitioner certification in September 2018.

Heidi works diligently to instill APMP’s best practices and her proposal passion in every opportunity which resonates through her team and the sales process. Heidi is based in Milwaukee, WI.
Heidi assisted on the Greater Midwest Chapter (GMC) Events Committee for 3 years, the GMC Marketing Committee for 1 year and as Events Chair most recently in 2020 and 2021.

Heidi received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing Management from Carroll College (Waukesha, WI) in 2002 and her Master of Business Administration from Cardinal Stritch University in 2008.

Heidi is a Moyamoya (a rare brain artery disease, occurring in less than 1 in 100,000) survivor/warrior since diagnosed in 2014, having had 2 brain artery bypasses in 2014 and 2015 after suffering a stroke on Christmas Eve 2013. She advocates for Moyamoya awareness as often as possible, buddies up with newly diagnosed people in her area and contributed to Faces of Moyamoya Disease, a book launch completed the end of 2020. Additionally, she enjoys reading, writing, shooting darts with her husband of almost 10 years, and instilling a brave warrior, can-do attitude in her daughter Grace (almost 5) and stepson Jeremy (almost 14). More recently, her and her daughter have become interested in geocaching and try to venture out to do that together as frequently as possible.

Kelly Thomas leads a team of Global Commercial Managers at GE Digital working across teams to deliver outcomes for customers on their Digital Industrial Journey. The team does that by driving deals forward from business development through pricing, proposal and contracting. Day to day, the team applies APMP and Lean best practices to improve results for internal and external customers.

She has been in the proposal industry for 10 years, and an APMP member since the very start. She was luck enough to have a mentor that was an avid supporter of the organization and helped drive a long lasting commitment to the organization. When she started, she was a member of the APMP Maple Leaf Chapter and eventually served on the Board in Canada for a time. After moving to the US, a spell in Oregon and now in Texas, she has remained an advocate of the organization – bringing the GE Digital on as a corporate member. After settling in Texas, she started working with the Lone Star Chapter Board on the regional conference. Although the conference was postponed due to COVID last year, involvement in the Chapter stuck. She served as Secretary for a year before becoming Co-Chair of the Chapter in Jan 2021 along with Jaclyn Anderson. (And she still thanks/blames Sonya Wooley for that)

In 2020, she was a member of the 40 under 40 APMP Class and also serves as Co-chair of the GE Digital Women’s Network.

From a personal perspective, Kelly is an enthusiastic convert and practitioner of Lean. She is passionate about driving outcomes with a commitment to candor, inclusion and diversity. And finally, the favorite part of her role, whether it is at APMP, the GE Digital Women’s Network, or Deal Desk is being a mentor and coach to team members and using lessons learned to improve our business.

Interests & hobbies: hiking (although I don’t get much of that in Dallas), travelling (when I can), reading (anything and everything), playing with my dogs and going for a great meal with good friends (usually involving some queso – good thing I live in Texas!)

Marissa A. Martinez currently serves as Director of Proposal Management for Wood’s Resilient Environments (RE) Corporate Proposal Center, where she brings more than 20 years of proposal management, capture and business development experience. Marissa is highly experienced in leading high performing teams in the submission of high priority, competitive proposal responses for Federal Government and International customers. She coaches and mentors staff in capture and proposal management execution including the development of value propositions, win strategies, capture plans, teaming, past performance, and pricing strategy. She began her career working in various International Business Development roles in the satellite communications (SATCOM) industry.

Marissa holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Marketing from DePaul University and a Master of Science in Global Leadership from the University of San Diego. She is a Project Management Institute (PMI) certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds the Association of Proposal Management Professionals Practitioner-level (CP APMP) certification.
When she is not working proposals, Marissa enjoys spending time with her family, yoga, outdoor activities around San Diego, and traveling. She has a passion for learning, design, innovation and mindful leadership.

In the ITes industry for approx. 18 years now, Shashi Kukar started her career as a lecturer teaching English Literature, but soon steered into the corporate world.  An accomplished Content Leader with diverse experience across the entire gamut of B2B Content – Research, marketing, Knowledge management, and sales support, she has extensive experience in building content organizations, executing strategic initiatives, incubating and scaling content operations in B2B organizations. In her recent avatar as Content Leader for the  Genpact deal team at Genpact,  she has successfully steered the team on a transformation journey. The team was awarded  the Bid & Proposal Team of the Year  at the inaugural edition of  APMP India’s Conference on Bid & Proposal Management (CBPM), with its theme ‘Moving the Needle held in Mumbai, India. The award honors a cohesive, effective proposal team that demonstrates industry best practices, thought leadership, and a commitment to the professional development of its members.

Driven by an insatiable desire for excellence and making meaningful connections, her journey has been fuelled with an unrelenting passion for empowering people and helping others maximize their potential.

She is an avid reader, and has a keen interest in Literature, Poetry, Music and spirituality. Women and their unique place in society have always intrigued her. Starting with her MPhil thesis on “Women in Patriarchal Structures”, she continues to show her unrelentless passion in her writings, exploring the many facets of women, their identity, its evolution through the interplay of human emotions.

Nicole Gorman is  a proposal professional with 5+ years experience working with teams to think and act strategically to win more business. She is motivated by overcoming pursuit challenges through close collaboration with others. She works hard to establish trust within her teams that together they’ll tell the right story that results in favorable business outcomes for their business. Nicole is APMP Foundation certified, 2020 APMP 40 UNDER 40 award winner and communications chair for the APMP Liberty Chapter.

She loves a good story! Whether it’s in a proposal, a documentary, a professional development book, or a conversation with a stranger- She is always interested in expanding her mindset by listening to the stories that others have to tell. She’s also a faithful member of the Orange Theory Fitness community (“where are my 5 AM gym goers at?!”) and a huge fan of monthly subscription boxes.

Mark Whitley would love to pretend he is some sort of polymath but most likely he prefers to dabble or has a curious mind. With degrees in Physics and Optical Electronics he embarked on a first career in lasers and optics, including manufacturing, purchasing and sales & marketing. With a desire to explore other areas he used Business School to bounce into telecommunications and broadcasting solutions for a variety of sectors and there discovered the joy of Bidding, Proposal and Capture. He is now intrigued by innovation funding and how work is won in that environment, as well as rediscovering how integral this profession is to business success.

A bit of a serial volunteer Mark has had stints with the Institute of Engineering of Technology (IET), Warwick Business School as an Alumni Board Member and more recently as a Mentor, his kids Primary School as Chair of the Governing Body and as Rugby Coach at his son’s club. He has arranged a few Chapter events for APMP over the years and also Mentors for them.

Kathryn Potter is originally from South Africa and started working in bids and proposals in the business travel industry in 2004 when she moved to the UK after a year as an English Foreign Language teacher in Germany. Most of her career has been freelancing and contracting and as a result of this she became an advocate for up-to-date content and centralised content libraries.

When she is not working on content and/or thinking about new ways to organise her favourite thing to do is spend time with her husband and two young daughters. She likes cooking as a family, going on cycling and camping adventures and watching movies. Kathryn also enjoys being creative and has written, illustrated and published a children’s picture book and has a second book waiting to be completed. Kathryn is also interested in gardening and that she is hoping to to produce all salad leaves for the summer and autumn garden veggie patch. She enjoys reading but don’t make enough time for it these days, her mom keeps telling me that life works in cycles and I’ll get back to it.

Kathyrn is a regular speaker at APMP events and was also sponsor to APMP UK 2020 awards.

David Warley CPP APMP Fellow is founder of Bid to Win Ltd and one of APMP’s first Approved Trainers. After sixteen years’ experience in telecommunications and IT, David’s first bid was in 1986. After eight more years climbing the greasy pole of corporate employment, David struck out as an independent consultant. His specialism was the implementation of global networks and he has led several major bids and IT infrastructure projects. With the lessons learned from his first bid still fresh “we need to get better at this” has been his operating mantra. In 2006 he became one of the first APMP Certified Professionals and approved trainers. In 2007 he founded Bid to Win Ltd and has provided certification training in UK, Europe, India and the US. He has been a frequent presenter at APMP UK and International conferences. His focus has been on helping organisations improve their capability and maturity and on promoting good practice from the world of project management. He is a volunteer in the APM Contracts and Procurement Specific Interest Group where he continues to pursue his interest making sure that projects “do what they promise” and users get the benefits that taxpayers and/or shareholders paid for.

Whether helping a Texas-based firm win a major P3 highway project or helping a consulting firm win a sole-source contract with Chrysler, Jeanette Waldie loves writing client-centric proposals! She excels at connecting the dots between your solutions and the client’s needs and wants, as demonstrated by the 80% success rate she has achieved on the proposals she has written for clients for the past five years. She is very passionate about proposals; She’s made it her career for the past 25 years.  Her experience gives her the ability to work with staff and clients to develop content that communicates and wins the project. She is a Certified Proposal Professional, Member, and Fellow of the Association for Proposal Management (APMP). She is passionate about sharing her skills in the art of communication, whether it is through presentations, webinars, or training. For over 30 years, She has been the wordsmith for companies big and small; starting with business communication, financial plans, and business processes to technical and proposal writing. Whatever your business, she works effectively with you and your experts to create communication that enhances your bottom line

Prior to joining the industry ten years ago, Rebecca Link  completed her Master’s degree in Public Administration and has since fast-tracked her growth to become Director of Proposals Operations at ActioNet. She has served on the Board for the NCA Chapter for over five years and she has played an integral role in leading the chapter’s functions and improving member benefits and board processes. In 2017, she received the award for “Up and Coming Board Member” and was named one of APMP’s Top 40 Under 40. A member of APMP for nine years, Rebecca has her Practitioner Level Certification. She is a mother to two amazing children, an avid gardener, and lover of all things chocolate.

Jennifer Namvar is a proven Capture Director with 18 years of experience in all phases of the GovCon growth life cycle including: marketing, business development, capture, and proposal management for both new business and re-competes. She built her reputation in the GovCon industry by bidding and winning large, strategic opportunities with a focus on emerging and next generation technologies and solutions. She has held Capture positions at leading Federal Government Contractors where she successfully closed $2B in new and re-compete business. She holds a Federal CIO certification, an MS in Technology Management from George Mason University, and a BA in Journalism from the University of Maryland College Park. She cherishes her time with her family. She is a wife, mother of 2 young kiddos, lover of travel, reading, and fashion, and a fitness enthusiast.

As Managing Director at Bid for Success, Adrian Corcoran and her team focus on championing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to help them win more work in the public sector, recognizing the important part they play in the UK and global economy.  Formed from a management buy-out by Adrian and her co-founder, Gareth Morgan, Bid for Success was established in 2019 to offer a different approach to bidding that both supported SMEs, but created win:win solutions for bidding professionals who wanted to put their family and priorities first.

In the decade prior to forming Bid for Success, Adrian led major bid teams for a leading UK consultancy and FSTE listed 250 companies, including British Gas and Kier Group, having fallen in love with bidding through her work in property services within the public sector working client side on procurement and service delivery.  When not bidding her interests include art and business, having earned her MA from Sotheby’s and an art history degree from Tulane University.  Outside of a work context, Adrian spends time raising her two children and enjoying life with family and close friends, with spare time spent writing an painting in her down time.

Anatalia Macik, CP APMP, has 17+ years of experience as a writer and editor and 12+ years in proposal development. A member of APMP’s International 40 Under 40 Class of 2020, she was recognized for the impact she has made through her promotion of repeatable and realistic proposal processes. She is excited to join the APMP International Board of Directors and will bring lessons learned from over a decade of impact on the processes, quality, and efficiency of bid and proposal responses.

Currently as the Proposal and Bid Director for the Security Detection and Automation organization within Leidos, she is working to establish processes, templates, and procedures that align with the corporate standards and expectations established by Leidos. Previously as a Director at Pyramid Systems, she built the processes, templates, and proposal team all while leading proposal responses for the company. While at eGlobalTech, she refined existing processes, improved templates for repeatable use, and managed a team of proposal managers while responding to 50-80 proposals annually. Through her 12+ years as a proposal professional, Anatalia has believed in and shared her enthusiasm for the rigor of process, continual improvement, and effective flexibility.

Bette Sturino, CP APMP joined BMO Financial Group in 2006 and serves as Assistant Vice President and Senior Proposal Manager within the North American Treasury & Payment Solutions line of business.  She has more than 15 years of proposal management experience and supports the Sales organization with their commercial, local government, and non-profit RFPs.  She wears many hats on the team from proposal management to graphics to writing & editing, as well as content development and mentorship. Bette is happy to work on a team of seven other proposal managers after spending many years as an army of one.  Prior, Bette spent two years managing a proposal team at FIS, which is where her passion for APMP started.

Bette earned her APMP Foundation Certification in 2012 and Practitioner level in 2016. She has been actively involved in the APMP Greater Midwest Chapter since 2012 and served on their board of directors in varying roles since 2013, including Events Committee, Professional Development Chair, Vice Chair, 2018 Chapter Chair, and 2019-2021 Communications Chair.  Bette was recently selected to serve the 2021-2022 term on the APMP International Board of Directors.

Bette has her Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree with majors in Marketing and Real Estate from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.  She resides in Hot Springs, Arkansas with her husband and two Goldendoodles.

Leigh Ann Newman works as a Senior Program Manager of Proposal Operations for Public Consulting Group, Inc. in their human services practice area where she is bringing industry best practices to the art of proposal development for the entire PCG Human Service team.  This includes company-wide quarterly trainings, reporting on proposal submission activities and providing support to all Human Service staff in proposal development. Leigh Ann is Practitioner Level certified by the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) and has her master’s degree in Business Administration from Clark University as well as a Bachelor of Science in Communication/English from the University of Idaho. She is the past Marketing Director for the Pacific Northwest chapter of APMP serving on the board of directors from 2015-2020, where she supported new member engagement and chapter level outreach via multiple social media accounts and through website management. She is also a newly elected member of APMP’s International Board of Directors for the 2021-2022 term. She recently wrote an article for Winning the Business titled, “Making a Fashion Statement During Proposal Reviews.” Leigh Ann is from Cavendish, Idaho where she helps her husband and their 19 year old son run their 600 acre wheat and barley farm and raise registered Morgan horses.

Leigh Ann Newman works as a Senior Program Manager of Proposal Operations for Public Consulting Group, Inc. in their human services practice area where she is bringing industry best practices to the art of proposal development for the entire PCG Human Service team.  This includes company-wide quarterly trainings, reporting on proposal submission activities and providing support to all Human Service staff in proposal development. Leigh Ann is Practitioner Level certified by the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) and has her master’s degree in Business Administration from Clark University as well as a Bachelor of Science in Communication/English from the University of Idaho. She is the past Marketing Director for the Pacific Northwest chapter of APMP serving on the board of directors from 2015-2020, where she supported new member engagement and chapter level outreach via multiple social media accounts and through website management. She is also a newly elected member of APMP’s International Board of Directors for the 2021-2022 term. She recently wrote an article for Winning the Business titled, “Making a Fashion Statement During Proposal Reviews.” Leigh Ann is from Cavendish, Idaho where she helps her husband and their 19 year old son run their 600 acre wheat and barley farm and raise registered Morgan horses.

Kathryn Morgan is a Bid Director with over 14 years’ experience in bidding, starting my career as a bid coordinator in 2006. She is worked in different sectors including hard FM, private security, professional services and soft FM for companies include Just Ask Estate services, Mitie, EY, G4S. Kathryn completed her APMP Professional accreditation last year (2019).  Recipient of APMP 40 Under 40 Award – 2017, Winner of the APMP UK Writing Award – 2016 and also nominated in the 2020, APMP UK 2020 leadership category.

Krishna kumar (KK) comes with 28+ years of deep IT experience across India, USA, Australia and Singapore. He has worked with world class organizations like IBM, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Siemens and Mastek. KK has performed in a wide spectrum of roles from large Client Account Management, Consulting, Technology Lead, Pre Sales and Organization Process Head. KK has led many large ERP and Outsourcing deals. KK was a past member of the Board with Association of Proposal Management Professionals (www.apmp.org).  KK is Certified at Practitioner level and is also a contributing author to APMP’s Body of Knowledge (BOK) and the APMP Journal.

Diana Parker leads Microsoft’s newly formed, Proposal Center of Excellence, based in Redmond, Washington.  The team of around 40 proposal professionals serves all sectors of Microsoft’s business globally and provides best practice approaches to proposals for the Microsoft sales team.

Originally from the UK, Diana moved to Microsoft headquarters in August 2019 following 6 ½ years in field sales and sales leadership at Microsoft UK.  In her last role in the UK she led the sales team focused on the Retail & CPG sector.  Prior to Microsoft Diana spent many years at IBM in sales roles.

Sanjay Singh has 23 yrs. of experience in building and leading teams to support sales and consulting functions at global MNCs such as Oracle, McKinsey & Co. and IDC. He is skilled at business research, sales enablement and knowledge management. Sanjay currently leads the Bids & Proposals Management team at Genpact. Genpact (NYSE: G) is a global professional services firm that makes business transformation real for Fortune 500 companies. Over the last couple of years, Sanjay has redesigned and built a bid management center of excellence at Genpact. This transformation project led to significant improvement on all bid management performance metrics and won Genpact the APMP’s Best Bid & Proposal Team award in 2019.Sanjay earlier set up a sales intelligence center of excellence at Genpact doing industry & company research, content creation, lead generation through CXO-connections and competition intelligence.

Sanjay is on the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) India Governing Board since January 2020. He is co-leading the Marcomm committee and helping drive APMP India’s growth strategy.

Sanjay loves to listen to podcasts and regularly plays badminton & cricket. He has bit of a green thumb and doing community farming for organic vegetables. He is based in Gurgaon since 1998 and has seen it evolve from a sleepy little town into a buzzing millennium city.

Karen Althen is Senior Bid Manager and has been involved in bid production and bid management for around 15 years. Throughout her career she has been excited by change and growth in the company. Karen enjoys working on and winning complex bids, particularly under the Competitive Dialogue procedure where she has been involved in managing significant wins. Karen is qualified to APMP Professional level. Karen is Events Director for APMP UK and she organises member events throughout the country and enjoys meeting people and mentoring members through the certification process.She has been previously presented at APMP UK national conference and the International Conference in the USA in addition to presenting at local events throughout the UK.

Heather Kirkpatrick, CP APMP is currently serving as Business Development Analyst at PRIDE Industries. She has been with the firm for 14 years taking various roles from Research Analyst, Proposal Development Coordinator and Business Development Coordinator. Heather is an APMP 40 under 40 award winner and also serves in the APMP California Chapter as Chapter Chair. She joined the California board in 2015 as Membership Director. Heather is APMP Practitioner and Foundation certified and has an educational background in Political Science and Government at the University of California, Sacramento.

Edith Lopez is a Venezuelan and Canadian passionate Proposal Manager with + 14 years of experience, in the Telecom sector, and always in the Bid & Proposals Management field, filling roles as a Bid Manager and Team Leader; in Latin-American and North America markets; mainly for Private Customers and complex proposals, some of them raising billionaire sizes. She is Chemical Engineer, with a specialization, and master’s degree in Project Management; in 2014 she obtained the CF and CP APMP Certificate (Certified Practitioner, APMP Member), in 2015 a Certification in Business Communications (Mount Royal University), and in 2018 the CPP Certificate that she just renewed it.

Additionally, to her full-time job in Nokia as a seasoned Bid Manager, Edith is an active member of the APMP “Maple Leaf” Chapter, in the past, she was Communications Chair and Western Region Chair, mentor for the mentorship program; besides, within Nokia, she is member of a group that promotes Women inclusion in her company.

Edith is preparing herself for Teaching at University level and i keen to learning and support the growth of others on the Proposal Management fields, with special attention to the Tech sector, as well as keep creating winning proposals!

Lauren Daitz, CF APMP has been a proposal manager since 2005, after starting her career in marketing. She discovered the APMP in about 2007 and has been an active member since then, serving as Communications Chair of the NY Metro Chapter (now the Liberty Chapter) from 2009 to 2015. Lauren has spent her entire proposal management career in the business / commercial sector, in health care and the recognition industry, leading the proposal efforts for some of the largest pieces of business for the companies she has worked for. She specialized in managing small teams, wearing multiple hats throughout the sales cycle. In addition to proposal management, Lauren oversees the sales administration team and is the primary liaison for our division’s contracts.

Outside of work, Lauren enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, and spending time outdoors in fresh air, from the beach to the forest including Hiking. Since her involvement with yoga, Lauren started a regular meditation practice, and she recently achieved Reiki level II (a type of energy healing).

Since 2012, Sarah Hinchliffe  has been helping clients win more business by improving the quality and professionalism of their sales and bidding skills. She works with large, medium and small businesses with a big focus on Public Sector tenders.

Sarah’s  work today is built on a successful thirty-year career selling in the technology industry where she worked her way up from a rookie to a director. During that time, she was formally trained in key sales methodologies, including SPIN, Miller Heiman, Strategic Selling and Solution Selling. She developed an affinity with bidding – it plays to her strengths as a storyteller, an organiser and a timekeeper. Attending the Shipley bid management course in 2009 ignited her determination to switch careers and she has been a certified Shipley trainer and consultant since 2012.

Sarah regularly writes articles for professional sales and bid publications including APMP presentations.

In her spare time, she works hard on her home and garden – all forms of design being a big passion. She stays fit and enjoys own home-cooked food and good wine in the company of her super husband and her handsome lurcher.