Leslie Wilkinson

About Leslie Wilkinson

I’m a product and strategy executive who brings clarity to complexity, especially when organizations are navigating transformation, reinvention or scale.• Fifteen years across CNN, The Weather Company, Turner Sports and Cox Media Group — leading content platforms, streaming distribution, and product transformation at scale.• Currently running a multi-million dollar streaming distribution portfolio at CMG. Previously, platform strategy at 450M MAUs at The Weather Company. CNN\'s mobile and alerts infrastructure, still running 6.5 years later.• Open to the right executive role or the right engagement. Both start the same way: give me access to the right people and the data, and we\'ll figure out exactly where you need to go.Expertise • Digital Revenue Strategies & Operations • Web & Native Mobile App Product Management • Product Strategy & Lifecycle Development • Vendor, Agency & Partnership Relationship Management • Digital Advertising • Content Strategy • Cross-Functional Team Leadership & Collaboration • Creative Problem SolvingSuperpowers • Known for walking into complex organizations and finding what others have missed — then building the path forward. The CNN alerts experience I rebuilt in 2019 is still in the app today.• Fluent across tech, product, and business — translating between engineering teams, editorial workflows and executive strategy without losing the thread of any of them.• If the stakes are high, the politics messy, or the problem unowned, I’m probably already in the middle of it, with a plan and the right people around the table. The fun stuff 🧘‍ 16 years of yoga practice Avid gardener + amateur blueberry grower (season 8 coming in June!) Lifelong swimmer & skier; hiker, walk/runner, Tar Heel Unflappable, fearless and, yes, my laugh gives me away

Experience

1. Founder & Principal

   Leslie Wilkinson Consulting Llc

   Jan 2025 — Present · Atlanta, GA, US

   I founded this practice to work at the intersection of product clarity, operating structure and executive motion. I partner with founders, C-suite, VPs and cross-functional leadership teams navigating growth, change or dysfunction — especially when they don\'t just need a roadmap. They need a translator. A decision-maker. Someone who sees the whole board and knows which pieces to move first. Focus Areas • Org-as-Product Design: building functional orgs around ambitious ideas, scale, reinvention or AI-driven change • Fractional Executive Leadership: CPO/COO-type partnership for orgs in transition or strategy stalls • Product Operating Model & Team Design: reshaping how cross-functional product orgs actually get work done • Strategic Advisory for Founders & VPs: trusted partnership across messy, political or high-stakes decision pointsRecent Engagements • Agentic AI + Platform Modernization: reframed service experience and reimagined product suite through early AI implementation • Client Services Studio: product operating model architect for early client engagement and future delivery leadership • Alpha-Stage Startup: rapid-cycle use case generation and product framing for early concept developmentOpen to new strategic partnerships: fractional, advisory or transformational. If you have the ambition and need someone to help figure out what\'s next, let\'s connect.

Education

• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  Graduate Certificate

  2006 — 2007

• UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

  Master of Business Administration

  2009 — 2011

• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Journalism and Mass Communication

  1995 — 1999

Skills

• Wordpress
• Video
• Publications
• Mobile Tv
• Graphic Design
• Multimedia
• Social Media Marketing
• Product Management
• Content Management
• Layout
• Copy Editing
• Publishing
• Storytelling
• Content Strategy
• Business Operations
• New Media
• Editing
• Mobile Applications
• SEO
• Digital Strategy
• Editorial
• Breaking News
• Social Media
• Newspapers
• Digital Media
• Facebook
• Web Content Management
• Web Design
• Journalism
• News Writing
• Connected Devices
• Blogging
• Cms
• Content Development
• Product Development
• Web Content
• Newspaper Design