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Laura Thompson
Sr. Manager, People Operations at Ready
Professional Background
Laura Thompson is a seasoned Human Resources leader with a wealth of experience spanning over 19 years in various high-stakes environments, including both domestic and multinational firms. Laura's unique skill set is complemented by her bilingual proficiency in Spanish, which allows her to navigate complex HR landscapes across diverse cultural contexts. She has held pivotal C-suite facing positions, collaborating closely with company executives such as CEOs, Presidents, CFOs, and global COOs. Her professional journey began at Dow Jones, where she cultivated her hands-on HR knowledge from the ground up, setting a solid foundation for her subsequent leadership roles in the HR sector.
Laura's career trajectory includes significant stints in industries such as automotive and consumer products, global logistics and transportation, fashion and retail, luxury consumer goods, financial services, chemicals, and pharmaceutical/medical devices. This eclectic mix of industry experience underscores her versatility and deep understanding of HR dynamics across different operational frameworks.
Currently, Laura serves as the Senior Manager of People Operations at Ready, where she continues to innovate and implement effective HR strategies aligned with organizational goals. Her commitment to excellence and continuous improvement has allowed her to lead her teams through complex re-structuring processes, implementing best-in-class HR practices to foster growth and development within the companies she has worked for.
Education and Achievements
Laura Thompson's academic credentials are impressive and reflect her dedication to the field of Human Resources. She earned her Master's degree in Labor and Employment Relations from Rutgers University, achieving a commendable 3.62 GPA. Prior to that, she completed her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration at Rider University, graduating Magna Cum Laude. These educational accomplishments have provided her with a robust theoretical framework to apply in her practical HR initiatives.
In addition to her formal education, Laura has pursued ongoing professional development, ensuring she remains at the forefront of her field. She is one of the few HR practitioners to hold dual professional certifications, underscoring her expertise and commitment to staying current with evolving HR practices. Specifically, she has held the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification from HRCI since 2009 and is certified as a Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) since 2015.
Notable Accomplishments
Throughout her remarkable career, Laura Thompson has achieved several milestones that highlight her strategic HR capabilities and profound influence on organizational effectiveness. Among her selected accomplishments, Laura successfully streamlined the recruitment and onboarding process, demonstrating her attention to process improvement. Her efforts resulted in hiring over 71 employees within a condensed three-month timeframe, a feat that underscores her strategic foresight and efficiency in HR operations.
Another noteworthy achievement includes her successful defense against EEOC charges and other employment litigation matters, showcasing her deep knowledge in employment law and her commitment to maintaining compliance within her organizations. Laura's adeptness didn't just stop at litigation; she identified and resolved non-compliance issues related to I-9 regulations, further solidifying her reputation as a reliable compliance expert in the HR field.
Laura also played a crucial role in conducting a comprehensive company-wide needs analysis, leading to the successful implementation of advanced HR technology that notably included payroll, time and attendance systems, and a comprehensive recruiting system. This strategic move not only modernized the HR function but also increased operational efficiencies and enhanced the overall employee experience.
Key Areas of Expertise
Laura Thompson's areas of expertise are extensive, highlighting her comprehensive understanding of HR principles and practices. Flawlessly navigating the realms of labor and employee relations, conflict resolution, and employment law, she is well-versed in managing the complexities of the employment landscape.
Her expertise in full-cycle recruiting ensures that organizations have access to top-tier talent, while her skills in disciplinary actions and intricate knowledge of EEOC charges equip companies to handle disputes effectively and fairly. Laura is also proficient with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), benefits administration, immigration compliance, and the evaluation and implementation of HR systems—skills that are critical in today’s evolving workplace environments.
Through her multifaceted experience and qualifications, Laura Thompson exemplifies the qualities of a transformative HR leader, dedicated to fostering a positive workplace culture, promoting employee engagement, and driving organizational success.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
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