The challenge
Dexcom's conference footprint spans major industry events (ADA, ATTD, AMCP, PCMA, ASHP Midyear, Asembia, HLTH, VIVE, HIMSS, APhA, Nexus, NACDS TSE, and more) each with its own budget, timeline, sponsorship terms, and cross-functional dependencies. At this scale, the program needed more than execution: it needed a single owner who could track spend in real time, forecast forward, and give leadership a clear picture to make investment decisions on. There was no one doing that end-to-end. I stepped into the gap.
Budget tracking & phasing
Monthly and quarterly review of spend against a $1M+ portfolio, with responsibility for phasing decisions that inform how budget is allocated across the year.
Cross-functional stakeholder alignment
Running quarterly budget reviews with representatives from Finance, Marketing, Legal, Sales, and Procurement, translating a fragmented, multi-team process into a single coordinated review cadence.
Process ownership
Rebuilt and significantly improved the tracking process for the full portfolio, replacing what had been an informal or fragmented system with a structure that scales to 75+ conferences without additional headcount.
Impact
Sole owner of a $1M+, 75+ conference program for the Global Market Access team — no team, no backup, full accountability for accuracy and outcomes. Built a planning process in 2025 from the ground up, giving leadership a forward-looking view they didn't previously have. Became the connective tissue across 5 functions (Finance, Marketing, Legal, Sales, Procurement), each with different priorities and constraints. Improved portfolio tracking accuracy and visibility, reducing the manual reconciliation that used to happen ad hoc across teams.
Forward-looking strategic planning
Leading 2027 conference planning a year ahead of execution: building the framework stakeholders use to prioritize which conferences to invest in, scale back, or cut.
Why this matters
This work reflects a shift from doing to owning: instead of executing tasks assigned by others, I'm the person leadership relies on to know where the program stands, what trade-offs are on the table, and what to do next. Running a $1M+, 75-conference portfolio solo, while also facilitating alignment across five functions, is the kind of scope typically split across a team of two or three.