Donna L. Lynn

Experience/Background

• Strategic planning, business plan development, operational plans.
• Significant C-level experience; co-founded and built several successful new ventures.
• Operational experience as senior executive in multi-billion dollar global information firm.
• Board of Directors and Board of Advisors service.
• Capital raising for early and mid-stage ventures; M&A; acquisition integration; due diligence.
• Business development, strategic alliances, global distribution.
• Workforce alignment and planning, business restructuring, business process re-engineering.
• Knowledge management solutions, communities of practice, innovative KM techniques.
• Knowledge and learning portals, information on demand, print-on-demand, learning technologies.
• Career in groundbreaking technological innovations, with a particular focus on information and knowledge technologies and processes, e-business supply chain systems for knowledge resources.

Professional Experience

President and Founder
Synergia Global, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD

2003 – present

Executive consulting services to private and public sector. Strategic and operational planning and execution. Organizational change and realignment; business restructuring and transformation. Venture origination: building and structuring new businesses or operations; capital raising. Knowledge management and information solutions; product strategy and strategic partnering. Business development. Advisor to early/mid-stage firms engaged in emerging market areas, including e-business supply chain management/electronic commerce, information/education industries, emerging info technologies.

President and Chief Operating Officer, Co-Founder
KnowledgeMax, Inc., McLean, VA

1998 – 2003

Directed operations including finance, business development, sales, strategic alliances, and R&D of this early e-business B2B supply chain venture that provided an outsourced procurement and enterprise information-on-demand platform to corporations. Conceived the strategy and extension of the original founding concept into a broader business-to business solution with greater revenue potential; closed accounts with major Fortune 100 corporations and trade associations, including a multi-year multi-million dollar contract with IBM. Developed business strategy and financial plan, including an e-commerce business model. Moved the strategy beyond the original concept to a large-scale e-business supply chain and outsourced content delivery system that provides online content and knowledge resources to managers and professionals at their desktops, provides selection and fulfillment of physical goods, and integrates print-on-demand (POD) for programmatic hard copy fulfillment. Initially developed the high level architecture for this e-business supply chain and enterprise resource center. Instrumental in raising early capital and sale of the business to a public company.

President
Silverplatter Information, Inc., Norwood, MA

1996 – 1997

Directed U.S. operations of this leading global information aggregator with HQ in Boston and London. Originated first-ever business plan for U.S. company. Member of global leadership team; active in creating global strategic plan, including targeting future acquisition candidates. Restructured organization in the U.S. to streamline operational efficiency and increase responsiveness to customer and market needs. Fostered collaboration to achieve common goals and objectives, particularly to align technology, editorial, and database design groups with sales and partner relations to satisfy and respond to client needs. Focused team on implementing critical initiatives in the business plan; led development team to be one of first to offer its extensive catalog of STM databases as an Internet-based service to libraries in U.S.

CEO, Director, Co-Founder
Online Computer Systems, Inc., Germantown, MD

1979 – 1996

Co-founded this pioneering developer of electronic publishing, multimedia, education, and information systems technologies; sold to Reed International (later Reed Elsevier) in 1985. Developed strategic plans, annual business plans, and product development plans. As senior executive of Reed Elsevier, participated in global strategic planning, annual financial reviews. Advised sister publishing companies in Reed Elsevier on electronic publishing strategies/technologies. Focused strategy at a time of industry change, restructuring organization and divesting subsidiaries.

Proficiencies, Awards, Publications

Invited speaker and panelist at key industry conferences.

Education

University of Florida and Florida Institute of Technology, Applied Mathematics
The Executive Committee (TEC)/University of Chicago, Continuing professional development in strategy, organizational development, and marketing