Priya Thomas

About Priya Thomas

Hi there! I\'m Priya. I transitioned into tech from higher education administration, leveraging fractional consulting work to build industry expertise and make the career pivot. Across all three domains, I\'ve spent 20 years helping founders, executives, and organizations build something new. Here’s a little bit more about me. Partner Success (PS) Leader with 20 years of experience building and directing in startups, organizations, and tech companies across SaaS, EdTech, and education sectors. Successful track record of scaling PS team through revenue growth (105%-145% NRR, 4x+ ARR) and serving partners across the U.S. in enterprise-scale programs. Skilled in strategic leadership, process improvement, account management, relationship building, data analysis reporting, and cross-functional collaboration. Experienced leading high-performing teams of 30+ with up to 4 reports, ensuring OKRs are achieved. Career Highlights: Scaled Partner Success function from the ground up, supporting 55 university partners (450% growth) and growing from 0 to 3 direct reports, contributing to 262% increase in user sessions per month in my tenure. Led PS team through heavy revenue growth from <$1.0M to $4.0M ARR and maintained 105%+ NRR (strongest year: 145%) as the Partner Success Lead in a SaaS EdTech startup. Provided leadership to build a department from the ground up at a new university, scaling operations and staff, developing programs, managing a budget, and supervising 34 employees as Director. Led vendor management and cross-functional collaboration to secure, implement, and manage an organization-required online wellness course, educating users. Fast Facts: ⏩ I was employee #10 and the 1st female hire at Knack, an EdTech start-up delivering a flexible and accessible peer tutoring service to the higher ed market. When I left, I had been there for half its life. ⏩ My fractional work so far includes 5 industries. ⏩ I started work at Florida Gulf Coast University 8 years after it opened. It was the fastest-growing university for three consecutive years in its early rise. When I left, the school was just 20 years old. I get excited about opportunities where I’m able to create impact, build and scale for growth, keep learning, and help others succeed. I love connecting with new people. Reach out here or at p••••••••@gmail.com.

Experience

1. Partnerships Consultant

   Parker Dewey

   Jan 2025 — Present

   Lead CRM hygiene efforts to help drive revenue and partnerships. Execute outreach to university partners and company clients. Help oversee daily efforts such as the review and approval of new client projects in the Parker Dewey platform, management and communication of outdated client projects, and review and assignment of help tickets in the CRM (HubSpot). Business Impact: Project 1 (Partnerships): Among a list of 800+ partners, found and evaluated 600+ duplicates and merged 420+ records, increasing the company\'s organization and efficiency in partner work. Project 2 (Partner Programs & Operations): Delivered recommendations to improve client understanding of micro-internship projects and created original process documentation for handling outdated client projects. Project 3 (Marketing): Reviewing 1,100 HubSpot contacts, researching and updating seven fields per contact as needed to help increase accuracy and improve targeted marketing outreach efforts.

Education

• University of Missouri-Columbia

  Master of Education (M.Ed.), Counseling Psychology

• State Fair Community College

  Associate of Arts (A.A.)

• University of Missouri-Columbia

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Psychology

• The Job Hackers

  Agile MBA