Deborah Kohl

Experience

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  Kansas State University

  Jan 2001 - Jan 2011

  Coordinator for Community Development

  ■ Transformed community and customer buy-in overcoming reputational history to successfully launch new $104M development project. ■ Built customer focused feedback model successfully used for 10+ years as measured by customer satisfaction and sales outcomes.■ Known for thought leadership and innovation and has presented at several industry national conferences sharing best practices and driving organizational visibility.

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  Kansas State University

  Jan 2012 - now

  ■ Despite industry and competitor downturn, maintained consistent customer enrollment YOY while simultaneously driving 88.9% increase in margin. ■ Scrapped a failing product that was 5 years too late, salvaged $120K/year loss, and pivoted product to 7 years of success while navigating difficult political situation. ■ Acute eye for waste and ability to drive margin improvements led to 10 years of profitable operations, often providing the funding for other initiatives. ■ Staunched 20% turnover rates during COVID with immediate team interventions driving up morale, teambuilding, and communication. ■ Data-driven decision making led to lead generation intervention that skyrocketed conversions 94.4% over subsequent 2 years. ■ Identified $268K of at-risk client revenue in the weeks leading up to the pandemic, implemented preventative plans and pivoted on 48 hours’ notice with 100% client retention. ■ Powerful advocate for healthy team culture, created workflows that allowed everyone to have vacation after 3 years of little to no time off. ■ Strategic and creative thinking in cost control drove down per product cost 45.7% over 7 years. Powerfully led the only team of 8 annually to turn a profit, enabling funding of outside programs and staff. ■ Always listening for customer feedback, identified strategies to reach 25% of former customer base while expanding word of mouth reach to new customers. ■ Powerfully led the only team of 8 annually to turn a profit, enabling funding of outside programs and staff.■ Lead a team of professional staff to deliver executive graduate education to executive learners in 6 cohorts. ■ Plan and execute international teaching consortium gatherings in international locations for faculty from 8 regions of the globe.■ Keenly identified changing marketing landscape, shifted approach from executive leadership on down, and maintained competitive edge while competitors lost revenue. Show less

  • State Specialist Community Vitality

    Aug 2022 - now

  • Managing Director

    Jan 2012 - Aug 2022
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  ASPEN BUSINESS GROUP LLC

  Jan 2018 - Jan 2020

  Change Leadership SME

  ■ Created a highly rated, hands-on and real-world application-based presentation that was delivered to a cohort of 25 business owners in a 2-year program that garnered accolades and left participants clamoring for more.■ Maintained 100% participant retention, outperforming every other session.■ Served as the Change Management subject matter expert for 2 years, building a team of SMEs, selling and presenting an interactive seminar on change leadership/management that added revenue and cache. Show less

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  Manhattan Christian College

  Jan 2021 - now

  Director, Thunder Online

  ■ Developed meaningful learning product updates to turn around 75% revenue loss for one organization and lead it into next generation offerings. ■ Within months of accepting a leadership role was able to transform employee satisfaction and preserve key leaders in roles enabling consistency in revenue results.■ Audited customer success metrics and identified needed shifts driving profitable offerings and revenue.