CLAIR WHITMER
Bridging Economic Development & Storytelling
I am a strategy and operations leader with a proven record in government agencies, startups, mission-driven brands and non-profits. I can help you ideate and operationalize programs & policies, use data to better understand the challenges in front of you & tell stories about your community that compel action.
My favorite thing is unraveling messes.
“Messes are made of information and people.”
- Abby Covert, "How to Make Sense of Any Mess"
PAST 10 YEARS
2021-Present
Assistant Deputy Director and Northern California Regional Adivsor
California Office of the Small Business Advocate
Part of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), CalOSBA represents the voice of the small business-owner in California and helps build the statewide ecosystem to deliver information, content & resources to small businesses. Regional Advisors are appointed by the Governor.
‣ The NorCal Regional Advisor serves as the principal representative of CalOSBA to 32 counties of Northern California, developing relationships with local, state and federal partners
‣ Represent office on the Economic Recovery Support Function
‣ Prepared budget proposals and trailer bill language for GO-Biz FY 2022-23 budget
2019-2021
FUSE Corps Executive Fellow, City of Fresno Economic Development Team
First-year project: Launching an Opportunity Zone in Fresno
Second-year project: Building a Template for Inclusive Economic Development
Key Accomplishments:
‣ Led 2020 deployment team of nearly $5 million in CARES Act funding through Save Our Small Businesses working capital grants in partnership with the Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation as well as $500,000 for the Save Our Non-Profits grant program
‣ Launched the first Kiva Hub in Fresno in partnership with the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce, sponsored by the National League of Cities Innovation Ecosystems program
‣ Launched the Opportunity Fresno prospectus for 47 Opportunity Zones
‣ Led the 2021 strategic planning focusing on four sets of initiatives: Business Expansion & Neighborhood Development, Downtown Revitalization, Business Startup & Financing Support and Economic Diversification.
‣ Nominating partner for the Inner City Capital Connections Northern California cohort
‣ Panelist at the 2020 ICMA (International City/County Management Association) Regional Conference speaking on the use of Opportunity Zones as evaluation criteria for federally funded small business grants
‣ Wrote the budget narrative for the FY 2022 Proposed Departmental Budget
‣ Grew email database from 0 to 3,500+ in six months and launched department's first social media channels
‣ Completed Aberkyn Leadership Development coaching, a McKinsey-development methodology focused on mindset and behavioral change in organizations
2014-2019
Head of Consumer Experience, Maker Media
Make: combines print and online content, events and e-commerce in support of the Maker Movement, a tech-influenced DIY community. I was responsible for aligning business goals with the needs of the maker community and managing a cross-functional team of 15-20 across engineering, event management, content development and marketing. I championed a strategy focused on professional development for makers and evangelized learning & financial outcomes to potential investors, including venture funds, philanthropic non-profits and Corporate & Social Responsibility managers.
‣ Pitched investment opportunity resulting in three Letters of Intent from outside investors and private equity and 2019 asset purchase by founder
‣ Ideated and operationalized an online portfolio and community platform branded Maker Share as part of a $3M strategic partnership with Intel, posting $300K net income in first year
‣ Led digital growth strategy resulting in 62% YOY user account growth in 2018; a 25% YOY increase in total email file size in 2018; and the creation of new earned revenue channels through a monetized membership program and a blended-learning SAAS platform
‣ Created print and digital content including branded activations for Digi-Key Electronics, eBay, Barnes & Noble, AT&T, and GE in collaboration with Hackster.io
‣ Built product design process & team from scratch to 7-person operation
2011-2014
Sr. Director Media Operations, Slashdot Media for Dice Holdings
Included Slashdot.org and SourceForge.net, which together during this period hosted 54M visits and served 164M pageviews/334M advertising impressions per month. Led a team of 12 across product development, ad-ops and marketing and managed a $3.5M budget to support annual delivery of $16 million in advertising and sponsored content programs, growing programmatic advertising revenue to $40K/month.
2011-2012
Director of UI & Content Development, Dice.com for Dice Holdings
2011-2012
The leading career site for technology professionals, Dice at that time delivered 50m+ monthly page views, 11K searches per month, and 60-90k job applies per month. Directed B2B customer research and overhauled the UX, increasing total content page views by 60% and reader engagement by 55% YOY over 2012.
2009-2010
Director of Voter Outreach, Overseas Vote Foundation
A nonpartisan nonprofit, Overseas Vote Foundation provides online voter registration tools and services for 6M+ U.S. voters living overseas. Ran voter outreach campaign during 2010 midterm election. Secured grant funding from Carnegie Corp. and The Pew Center on the States for best-financed outreach program to date; direct email campaign drove 108% YOY traffic increase.
PROVEN SKILLS
Leadership
Strategic development and KPI definition; stakeholder management; recruiting and building results-oriented teams; SMART goal setting and evaluations; culture & workflow change management; extensive international experience; fluent in French
Data & Digital
Gathering, analyzing and telling stories with the complete matrix of economic development metrics; hands-on experience with MySidewalk and ESRI GIS data visualization platforms; defining user journeys and user & technical requirements for digital tools; email database and social audience acquisition
Financials
Budget proposal and justification; P&L and payroll responsibility; performance forecasting; identifying federal and philanthropic grant opportunities and producing grant and budget narratives including matches; pitching investment opportunities to venture funds, philanthropic non-profits and Corporate & Social Responsibility managers
Content
Full spectrum communications: thought leadership & advocacy, ghostwriting, case studies, press releases, newsletters, marketing & advertising copy, social media, email marketing campaigns, storyboarding & script writing, decks; extensive public speaking experience
EDUCATION
B.A. Political Science
San Francisco State University
Graduated Summa Cum Laude, emphasis on Marxist theory
Certificate in French Language and Civilization
Université Paris-Sorbonne
Completed avec mention bien