Awards, Accolades & Scholarships

MORGAN ANDERSON, CF APMP

Age 31
Proposal Manager
U.Group

Key Accomplishments

• Morgan has managed over $100 million in single contract wins, authored non-technical sections of more than 50 proposals, and created templates for future use, using APMP best practices.
• She grew a key client relationship in a past role, resulting in over $100,000 in additional task orders and contract expansion (from three to 15 FTEs) over the period of performance.

You May Not Know

Morgan performs pro-bono consulting for emerging Black-owned businesses in support of strengthening local economies.

KATHERINE BECCHINA, CF APMP

Age 32
Proposal Manager
Burns & McDonnell

Key Accomplishments

• Katherine serves as her team's go-to alternative delivery proposal manager, having managed over $500 million in alternative delivery opportunities in the past two years alone.
• She has led or contributed to proposals with an average win rate of nearly 50%.

You May Not Know

If Katherine won the lottery, the first thing she would buy is a horse (she says she’s still 10 years old at heart).

HAZEL BENNETT, CF APMP

Age 31
Work Winning Manager, Advisory Services South
Arup

Key Accomplishments

• Hazel directly supported over £27 million of winning bids for Advisory Services South, including major projects with Public Health England, AstraZeneca and HS2 Ltd.
• She established more effective pipeline monitoring, including weekly reporting on opportunities and team win rates, and advising teams on effective pipeline management.

You May Not Know

Hazel rowed competitively at university, and her boat went up four places in one race.

KATHRYN BENNETT

Age 36
Director of RFP Excellence
Loopio

Key Accomplishments

• Kathryn works with more than 1,000 organizations to improve their processes, build bridges between executives and front-line staff, and encourage proposal managers to showcase their business value and take a seat at their organization’s revenue table.
• She is the co-chair of APMP’s LGBTQ+ Affinity Group and has shared best practices through various outlets, including APMP’s Power Half Hour.

You May Not Know

Kathryn is a competitive strongwoman and former titleholder of Utah's Strongest Woman.

JAMI BORNETUN, CF APMP

Age 37
Sales Proposal Manager
Delta Dental of Minnesota

Key Accomplishments

• Jami built a proposal department that implemented and developed company-wide proposal standards and processes.
• Her work has led to a sold and retention rate of 48% of RFPs that go through her team.

You May Not Know

In the last year, Jami’s passion for the outdoors has led her family to hike at over 21 state and county parks across Minnesota. She also actively serves on the board of directors for a local nature center.

MEGAN CARTWRIGHT, CF APMP

Age 35
Bid Manager and Work Winning Capability Leader
WSP

Key Accomplishments

• In 2020, Megan redeveloped WSP’s Business Development Integrated Management System (BD IMS) as part of a national initiative to update and centralize WSP’s work-winning process. She worked with WSP’s BD leaders and researched APMP best practices to create an approach that has helped increase WSP’s win rate.
• She regularly presents on “pursuit best practice” and provides guidance to other bidding professionals, helping increase the business’ work-winning capability.

You May Not Know

Megan has had the song “We Built This City” stuck in her head sporadically ever since she was little when her brother would sing the chorus repeatedly for months on end.

PAUL COLLINS, CF APMP

Age 37
North West Frameworks Manager
ISG

Key Accomplishments

• Paul has led significant bids to secure places on major public sector frameworks and has won numerous multi-million-pound projects in the education, leisure, commercial, and blue light sector.
• In April this year, he delivered virtual bid writing training for Inspire Youth Zone, supporting their ability to bid for funding to improve the lives of young people in Lancashire in North West England.

You May Not Know

Paul once cooked pizzas for David and Brooklyn Beckham.

CHRIS COLQUITT, CPP APMP

Age 39
Head of Global Proposal Management
Clarivate

Key Accomplishments

• Chris is a champion of APMP, ensuring all team members either hold or gain their Foundation certification within six months of starting. Retention within his team is over 75% across six years, with 65% of leavers moving to gain promotions to team-lead positions.
• He was a key proponent of driving the developing sustainability community at Clarivate, adopting the Ecovadis sustainability response platform early, leading him to become the co-lead for Clarivate’s GB Environmental chapter, as well as acting as a change ambassador within the company.

You May Not Know

Chris trains Taekwondo with his wife and two children and is aiming to grade to his first Dan black belt this year.

HAILEY COX, CF APMP

Age 32
Capture and Proposal Senior Analyst
Aerojet Rocketdyne

Key Accomplishments

• Hailey is responsible for just-in-time training at her company, and she serves in three important roles: ethics liaison for the Ethics and Compliance Department, Strategy and Business Development (S&BD) Employee Engagement Team lead and S&BD lead on the AR Business Operating System Leadership Council.
• In just over two years, she has received five Mission Success Awards for superior proposal leadership and support.

You May Not Know

Hailey completed a teaching and translating internship in Voronezh, Russia, in 2015.

HEATHER FINCH, CP APMP

Age 36
Team Leader – Group Proposal Development
Guardian Life

Key Accomplishments

• Heather helped develop Proposal Team Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) to prove the proposal team’s value through the data. She has helped set the bar for data-driven reporting and decision-making in her team and developed reporting dashboards for key decision-makers with highlights that put into context what the proposal team does and its impact.
• In 2019, she was awarded the 2019 Greater Midwest Chapter Member of the Year Award, recognizing her outstanding contributions to her APMP chapter.

You May Not Know

Heather worked at a brickyard one summer and developed the skill of cubing bricks.

LARISA FLOREA, CF APMP

Age 30
Graphic Designer, EMEA
Microsoft

Key Accomplishments

• Larisa designed the logo, as well as the website (with another colleague) for APMP Romania. She also helped increase the chapter’s followers in less than six months.
• She delivered graphics for Microsoft’s Met Office deal, in which Microsoft and the Met Office joined forces to build the “world’s most powerful weather and climate forecasting supercomputer in the U.K.”

You May Not Know

Larisa was recently part of a photoshoot for McDonald’s and a TV commercial for Telekom.

JAMIE FOWLER, CF APMP

Age 30
Federal Proposal Specialist II Federal Proposal Specialist II Michael Baker International

Key Accomplishments

• Jamie co-led Michael Baker’s biggest and most strategic federal pursuits, totaling more than $1.2 billion.
• She is leading the implementation of a strategic qualifications workshop and is developing a tool for federal SF330 proposals to help teams across varying federal markets identify the most appropriate, compliant, and responsive qualifications content early on in the proposal development process.

You May Not Know

Jamie is passionate about interior design. She helps friends and family with designing and decorating their homes. Her style is a mix of eclectic and traditional.

RACHEL FRUM, CP APMP

Age 34
Senior Pursuit Strategist
Baker Tilly 

Key Accomplishments

• Rachael has aided in elevating win rates through her knowledge and use of APMP best practices, increasing one company's win rates from 45% to 60% over the course of one year and streamlining proposal and production processes.
• She currently sits as the leader of an APMP innovation initiative within Baker Tilly and works with cross-functional teams to ensure everyone understands what the proposal department handles their areas of expertise and general best practices.

You May Not Know

Rachael started aggressive inline skating again this year (think rollerblading but with cool tricks) after not skating for about 10 years. So far, she can skate backwards again, jump 180 degrees and ride on front wheels only, back wheels only, and a combination of the two.

KELLI GURAL

Age 36
Proposal Manager
Gartner

Key Accomplishments

• Kelli manages bid opportunities ranging from $100,000 to several million in revenue for Gartner Consulting, has delivered to various branches of the U.S. and Canadian governments, as well as all levels of state, provincial and local government, and a range of commercial enterprises.
• She is her team’s internal ambassador for diversity, equity, and inclusion. She developed an internal collaboration site and a monthly cadence of discussion topics to drive team engagement, boosting team morale and comradery.

You May Not Know

Kelli can play five musical instruments: piano, trombone, tuba, trumpet, and baritone.

EVELIN GUTIERREZ, CF APMP

Age 25
Proposal Manager
Strategic Creations

Key Accomplishments

• In her previous role, Evelin developed a multimedia newsletter for all 250-plus California staff at the company, in addition to leading production of a podcast to connect staff while working remotely during the pandemic and playing a large role in the company’s business diversity committee.
• She is a founding member of the APMP Intentional Career Path Committee, which provides a plan for APMP and its chapters to promote the proposal profession as an established career path to students.

You May Not Know

Evelin has a strong passion for visual design and loves to incorporate art into her work and her personal life. In her free time, she draws and creates digital art and takes online courses to further her skills.

CRESSIDA HANDSCOMB, CF APMP

Age 39
Associate Director, EMEA Bids
Savills

Key Accomplishments

• Cressida has increased winning business for Ireland’s PRS team by 100% in six months, from €545,000 in 2020 to €1.1 million in 2021, through implementing APMP best practices.
• She demonstrated COVID-19 resilience through driving bid strategy and behavioral change, leading to an H1 2021 win rate of 67% (up 17% from H1 2020).

You May Not Know

Cressida received a degree in dance and was a professional contemporary dancer.

AMANDA HEATHER, CP APMP

Age 37
Reusable IP and Content Lead
Microsoft

Key Accomplishments

• Amanda has championed APMP and industry best practices in both proposal management and content management, and she has become a thought leader in implementing and maintaining content management systems, driving initiatives across multiple industries (IT, publishing, and engineering) to implement a variety of content management systems.
• She has supported the APMP Greater Midwest Chapter college outreach program through the marketing committee. She also mentors and coaches other industry professionals and champions an inclusive and collaborative team environment.

You May Not Know

Amanda passionately detests pancakes. And she makes amazing quilts.

ELIZABETH HILLMAN, CP APMP

Age 33
Energy and Science Proposal Management Team Lead 
Sandia National Laboratories

Key Accomplishments

• Elizabeth has managed the submission of over 300 competitive proposals, resulting in over $200 million of new funding to Sandia and retention of key federal government agencies as sponsors.
• She leads a multidisciplinary team of proposal management professionals who have achieved a cumulative success rate of 31% since she and her team members piloted a proposal management capability using APMP best practices in 2010.

You May Not Know

Elizabeth has a passion for travel and has visited five continents so far. She loves to read and has set (and met) a personal goal to read at least 45 books per year. She hopes to pass her love of travel and reading to her 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.

VICTORIA JOHNSON, CF APMP

Age 39
Head of Business Development 
Barkers - Procurement and Commercial Practitioners

Key Accomplishments

• Victoria has secured contracts in excess of £1 billion over the years, providing organizations with a defined and innovative approach to tendering.
• She provides bid consultancy services across a range of sectors with varying needs and has ensured to maintain a win rate in excess of 80%. 

You May Not Know

Victoria is a singer and has experience performing at the British Club and various corporate events in Abu Dhabi.

NICOLE JOHNSTON, CF APMP

Age 38
Deal Activation Leader, Associate Director – U.S. Government and Public Sector 
EY

Key Accomplishments

• Nicole developed a comprehensive digital learning experience, designed specifically to help federal and SLED pursuit teams win in the market.
• She has improved workflow by establishing and applying disciplined processes for effective proposal management and strategy development and, with her team, created a self-service portal for government/public sector-specific pursuit tools, templates and enablers, which has streamlined the proposal development process and allowed them to impact more deals.

You May Not Know

Nicole has lived in six countries and on four continents. Her father was a foreign service officer with the United States Agency for International Development, and she grew up in the developing countries where he was posted.

CARRIE JORDAN, CF APMP

Age 35
Interim Director of Proposals; Strategy and Operations Lead – Proposal Center of Excellence (PCoE)
Microsoft

Key Accomplishments

• Carrie served as part of a small pilot team with limited funding to ideate, develop and launch the PCoE. In less than eight months, this pilot’s success led to incremental funding in the next fiscal year, growing to over 65 proposal professionals.
• She leads the team that has generated a 513:1 ROI ($4.7 million in Q1-3 funding, resulting in an output of $2.4 billion in PCoE proposal wins for Microsoft).
  You May Not Know…Carrie and her husband own a custom woodworking business, where they make and sell furniture and décor.

MANVI JOSHI, CF APMP

Age 36
Head of Proposal Factory – Global Sales and Marketing CoE
Allianz Worldwide Partners

Key Accomplishments

• In her current role, Manvi set up the entire proposal function from scratch and scaled it to become a Center of Excellence, comprised of bid managers, graphic designers, and content creators.
• Her team of proposal managers established a Winning Workshops curriculum, which they facilitate for each “must win” opportunity for the pre-sales community. This has enhanced the win ratio by as much as 15% within the first year.

You May Not Know

Manvi has traveled across nine countries and aims to travel around the world by age 45.

MARY KAKAR, CP APMP

Age 35
Proposal Manager, Strategy and Business Development
General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc.

Key Accomplishments

• Mary served as proposal coordinator for the submarine Own Ship Monitoring System bid and the surface ship Air and Missile Defense Radar proposal, resulting in wins valued at about $45 million and $250 million, respectively.
• In 2020, confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic, she virtualized her team’s efforts while supporting over $400 million of competitive bids. She also completed Practitioner certification and is leading her group’s efforts to complete Foundation certification.

You May Not Know

Mary started as an intern in the General Dynamics Missions Systems (GDMS) organization and was a 2017 GDMS President’s Award winner.

JASPREET SINGH KALYAN, CF APMP

Age 40
Divisional Head, Commercial Excellence (Bid and Proposal Management) – Asia, Middle East and Africa
Securitas
AB

Key Accomplishments

• Jaspreet successfully created a centralized bid management function within a span of six months for Asia, Middle East and Africa.
• He created a centralized hub for managing the complete end-to-end bidding process, from the initiation of the RFP until submission to an existing or prospective client, on time and within the customer timeline.

You May Not Know

Jaspreet served in the Indian Army from 2004-2010 as a technical officer. He retired with Major as his last rank.

ELIZABETH KEPNER, CF APMP

Age 40
Senior Proposal Manager
GDIT

Key Accomplishments

• In her previous role, Elizabeth managed up to eight cross-functional proposal teams, contributing to over $8 billion worth of wins for the Combat Mission Systems business area.
• She serves on the board of directors for a local non-profit (Affordable Housing Advocates) and volunteers as a grant reader for the York County Community Foundation.

You May Not Know

Elizabeth is the proud owner of a rescued pit bull and has helped rescue over 100 animals through animal rescue transports.

ALYSSA KOLSKI, CP APMP

Age 37
Technical Business Development Specialist
Sandia National Laboratories

Key Accomplishments

• Starting with a single pilot proposal in 2010, Alyssa has implemented an adaptive proposal process to reflect the varied environments and requirements at the labs. This process has grown into a corporate-wide effort across Sandia’s energy, bio, and national security portfolios and an increased win-rate of more than 13% in the last three years.
• She is Sandia’s proposal education lead, developing and teaching classes to technical staff and management across the labs to further improve knowledge and implementation of best practices.

You May Not Know

Alyssa is a skilled quilter, colored pencil artist, and talented green thumb.

TARRYN KROG, CF APMP

Age 36
Proposal Manager
Gartner Consulting

Key Accomplishments

• Tarryn primarily works with the U.K. and EMEA region; however, successful proposal efforts have led to accolades from key managing partners, leaders and consultants from around the globe.
• She has developed training for delivering successful orals presentations. She constructed a new toolkit, tying together presentation checklists with guidance to support consultants developing client-facing presentations.

You May Not Know

As a teen and university student, Tarryn was an amateur surf videographer, spending her weekends and free time filming and editing footage of friends surfing in Mauritius and South Africa.

SOPHIA LARGE

Age 23
Bid Coordinator
Cundall Johnston and Partners LLP

Key Accomplishments

• Sophia has been an advocate for APMP and has introduced APMP best practices to her organization and staff members previously unaware of the association. She recently received a Distinction in the APMP UK Bid and Proposal Coordinator Apprenticeship Standard.
• Sophia is a Net Zero 30 advocate for her organization and, as an agent of change at the start of project delivery, has an opportunity to assist technical subject-matter experts in delivering zero-carbon projects globally by 2030.

You May Not Know

Sophia likes to keep fit by playing for her local hockey club, running, and walking her Patterdale Terrier puppy. She also ran the Great North Run in 2019.

SHIREEN LENORMAND

Age 38
Lead Contracts Specialist
Stryker Australia

Key Accomplishments

• Shireen was a founding member of Stryker Australia’s tender and contracts team. She has been a driving force in the development, management, and optimization of the end-to-end process. Implementing this process has seen their tender win rate consistently improve since 2012 to a 2021 (to date) win rate of 100%.
• In 2014, she was named as part of the Team of the Year and was also a joint winner of the President’s Award, given at the sole discretion of the president of Stryker Australia.

You May Not Know

Shireen speaks fluent French, has traveled to France multiple times, and met her husband Marc while traveling there.

RACHEL LISHMAN, CP APMP

Age 36
Bid Manager (Associate Director)
Savills UK

Key Accomplishments

• Rachel has driven cultural change in Savills’ capture process to improve win rates and profitability for the U.K. business from £80 million fees won in 2018 to more than £180 million in 2020.
• She has created a suite of tools to drive client understanding and win themes through the bid, engaging with L&D professionals to ensure that training programs align with APMP best practices.

You May Not Know

In 2015, Rachel competed in the World Bog Snorkeling Championships in Wales, coming 59th overall and not quite making it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

VICTORIA LONGDON, CF APMP

Age 38
Bid Manager
Travis Perkins

Key Accomplishments

• During Victoria’s time at Travis Perkins, she has improved the win rate from 65% to 80% by the end of this year.
• She has mentored staff who have gone on to receive their APMP Foundation certification and win high-achiever awards. In 2020, Victoria received the Peer Recognition Award, which celebrates employees who set an example for others within the team.

You May Not Know

Victoria is a qualified singer in musical theater.

MINDY MARCHEL, CF APMP

Age 38
Chief Technical Officer
The Salentis Way

Key Accomplishments

• Since 2008, Mindy has directed and assisted the development of more than 110 proposals for government and commercial contracts globally, worth more than $100 billion in total.
• Since she joined Salentis in 2012, more than 97% of Salentis products have been evaluated as fully compliant and “outstanding,” “excellent” or equivalent.

You May Not Know

Mindy left a full-ride scholarship after one year at Texas Tech University when she signed a record deal with her two sisters. They lived, worked, sang, and wrote music in Nashville for nearly five years before deciding to leave the industry. They still sing when they’re together and occasionally perform at various events.

MAKI NAKAMURA, CF APMP

Age 39
Senior Engineer – Business Promotion Department, Business Planning
Hitachi

Key Accomplishments

• Maki encouraged the necessity of proposal management to her organization’s executives, which led to the establishment of a new Proposal Management Expert Organization, with the mission of proposal promotion. She served as section manager.
• Maki has established a volunteer study group consisting of members from across the organization, including Hitachi Group companies in parallel. There are about 70 members, and she has held the study groups 43 times so far. She plans to continue to hold its activities every month.

You May Not Know

Maki enjoys traveling abroad and has been to the United States, Canada, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, England, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

CLARISSA OLIVAREZ, CF APMP

Age 37
Senior Business Operations Manager – Global Enablement, Sales Training
Unisys

Key Accomplishments

• Since joining the Go-to-Market Readiness Global Enablement Team in August 2020, Clarissa has become certified as a FranklinCovey facilitator for Filling Your Pipeline and Qualifying Opportunities courses and, subsequently, facilitated multiple class sessions to Unisys associates around the globe.
• She has developed many of the assets that are used to guide messaging across the organization for bid submissions, including a best practices checklist and an outline for executive summaries.

You May Not Know

Clarissa volunteers her time with a New York City chapter of a nonprofit organization and dog-parent community designed to support animal rescue organizations through outreach and local dog meetups.

ALLISON RAYNOR

Age 35
Associate Director – Strategy, Operations and Business Development
AEM Corporation

Key Accomplishments

• Allison developed and implemented a standardized company-wide business development framework, including more than 25 processes and tools for capture and proposal phases rooted in APMP best practices.
• She managed the development and submission of 26 federal government IT proposals with a 70% win rate overall, resulting in $475 million in contracts since September 2015, in addition to managing all recompeted proposals in 2019 and 2020 with a 100% win rate, protecting about $112 million in revenue.

You May Not Know

Allison enjoys traveling, and one of her favorite trips was to Uganda where she went on multiple safaris and traveled by raft down the Nile River for a month.

ANNIE SEN

Age 39
Bid Whisperer and Chaos Coordinator (Founder)
Writer’s Block Advisory

Key Accomplishments

• Annie was a bid writer/advisor for Australia's largest PMO tender to date.
• In the past decade, she has worked on bids with a total CAPEX value exceeding $12 billion in the engineering and construction sectors with a win rate of 95% (including shortlisting EOIs to tender stage).

You May Not Know

Annie considers herself a closet philosopher.

ANANT SHUKLA, CF APMP

Age 36
Business Development Manager – Digital Marketing Product Portfolio
Adobe

Key Accomplishments

• Anant encouraged close to 50 people to join APMP and mentored and helped prepare them for APMP Foundation-level certification.
• He built and established the bid management capability from scratch for product presales; compiled artifacts, templates, team, governance, demand generation for high-value strategic accounts; and worked closely with account teams to orchestrate winning bids.

You May Not Know

Anant is currently mentoring an Indore, India, based startup in the IT outsourcing space.

MICHELLE SPENCER, CF APMP

Age 31
Senior Proposal Specialist
Maximus, Inc.

Key Accomplishments

• Since taking her role, Michelle has helped break long-standing siloes and increased form/administrative compliance to 99.9%, increasing win rates overall.
• She is philanthropic with her time and actively contributes to arts and history events around the Washington, D.C., region. Even while virtual, she has maintained being a visitor services volunteer for Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens, and published a novella with all proceeds going to charity.

You May Not Know

Michelle has been playing the French horn for 20 years.

LIA TAYLOR-HIGGINS, CP APMP

Age 35
Senior Bid Manager
Eversheds Sutherland LLP

Key Accomplishments

• Lia has won over £100 million in contracts, including ousting a large legal managed service contract from a competitor firm (worth over £45 million).
• She has successfully coordinated hundreds of global submissions, including opportunities covering contributions from over 120 jurisdictions.

You May Not Know

Lia spent lockdown renovating her cottage and walking the Yorkshire Dales with her tireless spaniel.