Laura Clydesdale

COO + Managing Partner
Former Finance Leader at GE, Gap

Summary of experience 

Laura is the COO and Managing Partner of ARCx | The Talent Design Studio, where she helps organizations redesign processes to reduce friction, minimize unconscious bias, and improve diverse representation at all levels of the corporate pipeline. A passionate advocate for fairness and inclusion, Laura is also a writer and sought-after speaker on the unique opportunities and challenges for women leaders in today’s workforce. Her insights have been featured in the Washington Post, Chicago Sun Tribune, and Toronto Star, and she regularly appears as a keynote speaker and guest on podcasts and radio programs.

Throughout her career, Laura has led many high-impact process improvement initiatives, including cross-cultural, region-wide teams in the Asia-Pacific region. She graduated with honors from GE’s prestigious Financial Management Program and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Related Experience

  • Redesigned Pixar’s competency model for their production staff to ensure consistency and fairness across the entire organization. 

  • Redesigned succession planning processes to improve fairness, transparency, and bench strength in strategic roles for many organizations, including Stryker Medical and Arup. 

  • Redesigned the performance management process for Clif Bar to optimize efficiency, people metrics, transparency, and fairness.

  • Advised Clif Bar on their Future of Work initiative to help match their new hybrid strategy to their strong in-person culture.

  • Led the emergent strategy and future-culture redesign efforts for the McKnight Foundation through an extensive gap assessment, as well as workshop and training design. 

  • Developed and customized an assessment for the executive leadership team of the Green Bay Packers. Facilitated a team workshop to understand their data, the implications for the organization, and overall succession planning needs, and coached individual leaders on their personal development.

  • Human Resource Manager and Senior Consultant for Gap Inc., responsible for the design, implementation, and management of the Accelerated Development Leadership Program. Led the integration team to successfully launch Gap’s inaugural online ‘catalog’ for Banana Republic.

  • Senior Auditor, Corporate Audit Staff for General Electric Company, responsible for financial modeling and process improvement projects throughout the United States.