Fractional Operations Executive
I help companies do big things without coming apart.
Last 12 Years
Scaled Growth from 0 to $100M
As COO and later Chief People Officer of Piano Software, the digital revenue platform powering the subscription businesses of hundreds of the world's leading media brands, I built the operational underpinning to grow from a few people in a New York apartment with no product or revenue to the dominant software suite in category, powered by 670 staff around the world, and generating $100M in annual revenue and 10% EBITDA.
Now I do that for investors and the leaders they back, as a fractional executive.
I've learned what works by solving these problems as they come in real time in the face of real consequences for failure. I gather the requirements, plan the implementation, stay close through the early rounds of getting it right, and train your team in the know-how and conviction to own it going forward.
Prior Experience
Integration
Post-merger integration at Fortune 100 companies.
Transformation
Change management in the public sector.
Optimization
Salesforce effectiveness to drive performance.
Working With Me
A doer, brought in with intent, expected to build better, and then move on.
Investors bring me in when a portfolio company needs an outside operator. CEOs bring me in when they want a partner who has already built what they're building. I start with a candid assessment of what's working and what isn't, then step in as an interim executive, fully immersed inside the company, not as an outside advisor, lending it my credibility while I'm there and working alongside the leadership team already in place.
Understand first
A fast, honest read of the business, the organization, and how it runs, ending in a clear plan.
Operate in partnership
I take the wheel where it's needed and work alongside your leaders, not around them.
Built to outlast me
I install the systems and teach your leaders to run them, so the company never depends on me and I leave it stronger than I found it.
Track Record
Piano: pre-product to $100M, built to last.
Took the company from 6 people to a peak of 670, hiring and onboarding 1,000+ people over 12 years, and built a 19-person HR function to support it.
Planned and led the integration of five international acquisitions, adding $60M in revenue and building a 14-office global footprint.
Pulled 500+ employees across France, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia into one company with a shared culture, single HRIS, an intranet, a shared knowledge system, exchange programs, and unified titles and salary bands. Voluntary turnover stayed under 10%, and we earned recognition from Inc. Magazine, Red Herring, and PACT.
When the war in Ukraine put our teams in Ukraine and Russia at risk, I led the relocation of 40 staff to safety and kept operations running through the disruption.
As COO, I ran the global senior leadership team, oversaw the build-out of our headquarters and main European offices, and owned executive goal-setting.
As CPO, I hired C-level executives, staffed large sales teams, and led reductions in force when the market required them.
Managed the business to a 10% EBITDA margin.
Prior Experience
A foundation in facilitating change at scale.
I started my career leading post-merger integrations at Fortune 100 companies, running the PMOs and the teams that designed the combined organizations and delivered promised cost savings and revenue synergies.
For ten years I ran my own consulting firm, leading transformations at the NAACP, the Sierra Club, People For the American Way, the New York City Department of Education, and members of Congress. Clients saw revenue gains of 5–10% and comparable cuts in operating costs.
I was a founding member of the strategy and operations group for publisher business solutions. I led salesforce optimization, verticalization, and total rewards planning, which drove growth and improved employee satisfaction in a large sales team of 200 whose products were already massive market leaders.
Practical experience + academic rigor
Harvard University
A.B., Anthropology and Social Studies
- Degree: A.B.
- Major: Anthropology and Social Studies
- Trained me to read organizations as cultures, not just org charts — a lens I still use to diagnose why change efforts succeed or stall.
University of Oxford
M.Phil., Development Studies, Lincoln College (Rhodes Scholar)
- Degree: M.Phil.
- Major: Development Studies
- Sharpened how I weigh evidence and tradeoffs under uncertainty — the same discipline I bring to operating decisions today.
Columbia University
Adjunct Professor
- Role: Adjunct Professor in Executive MPA Program
- Subject: Change Management, Digital Media in the Public Sphere, Research Methods for Practitioners
- Teaching forces me to turn what I've done in practice into frameworks other operators can actually use.
Get In Touch
If your portfolio company needs an operator, let's talk.
I typically hear from investors first, and from the CEOs they back soon after. Either is a good place to start.
© 2026 Kweli Washington
Philadelphia