Ashley Leonard

Background

About Ashley Leonard

I lead businesses, non-profits and start-ups through periods of rapid growth with authenticity, empathy and curiosity. I love to solve multi-variable problems to make big, mission-driven impacts that create value for all stakeholders. I build backbones for scaling organizations including fundraising, hiring, training and mentoring professionals, creating strategy-driven budget and forecast models, setting priorities, designing efficient processes and policies, and implementing/integrating business systems. I am skilled in galvanizing teams, strategic planning, finance, organizational design, employee recruitment and engagement, board development, and project/process Most recently, I served for 3.5 years as CFO at ConnectDER, a venture-backed clean tech design and manufacturing company at the forefront of creating solutions and changing entrenched systems to enable affordable access and speed the adoption of electrification-focused climate solutions. I led the finance, accounting, audit, tax, human resources, IT, corporate administration and strategic planning functions. During my leadership tenure, ConnectDER closed $27M in Series C equity funding, sold over clean energy enabling grid edge interconnection devices, expanded its team from 10 to 50 employees, and grew revenue by over 400%. Prior to ConnectDER, I spent ~10 years as a Consultant, Board Member, Fractional Executive and Executive Director to various DC-based organizations. Highlights include-selected to serve as Interim ED for Girls on the Run-DC during a leadership transition. As interim ED, Ashley led the new Executive Director search process, on-boarded her successor, delivered the GOTR program to 2,200 girls, led the annual budget and planning process, and launched a 3 year strategic planning process-established the Jennifer Bush-Lawson Foundation as its first Executive Director-served as fractional CFO for Wirewheel and assisted in raising $3M in seed funding I began my career as an investment banking analyst focused on primarily private equity backed M&A transactions at Harris Williams. I also worked for venture-backed start-up, MuseumCompany.com, putting museum shops around the world on-line for the first time. Rounding out my early experience, I led Wachovia Securities’ College and MBA recruiting and summer internship programs, gaining dedicated experience in operational human resources and organizational development. My unique background helps me to quickly assess, determine course, and make an impact in any organization.