A non-profit organization operating for over 50 years with the mission to promote emotional well-being for all was growing exponentially. Grant Riewe is the Chief Technology Officer of Vibrant Emotional Health. He started with a team of around 30 individuals and is expanding that team to over 120 in less than two years. Between hiring around 80-90 people in a year, building and maintaining partnerships with external stakeholders, creating a strong team culture, and working on other projects, Riewe realized he would be over-extended. He needed someone who could help him meet growth goals and maintain the culture and efficiency of his existing team along the way. He needed a Chief of Staff.

Riewe had little first-hand experience with the Chief of Staff role, so he decided to engage an external firm to help him find the right person. He called several CoS organizations to get a sense of their capabilities.

“When I talked to the other Chief of Staff organizations,” Riewe says, “they were just looking for a personality fit with me, rather than trying to understand my goals.”

Riewe approached CEO Keziah Wonstolen, whom he’d worked with at Accenture, and described his ideal candidate. Wonstolen pushed him for further details, directing his focus towards the most important competencies for his specific situation; she proceeded to define what he needed in a Chief of Staff. Riewe knew he needed help with the nuts and bolts–for instance, with his monthly funding requests to his executive board. 

Riewe knew he had found his ideal CoS partner in Vannin Chief of Staff. He and Wonstolen then tapped veteran Chief of Staff Jamie Cole for the job.

Cole was an ideal fit for Vibrant Emotional Health during this transitional phase. As the former COO of TaskRay, she had prior experience heading growth-stage startups. Cole intrinsically understood what Riewe and Vibrant were dealing with, and her actions reflected that understanding. Cole jumped right into advancing Riewe’s vision: Riewe gave her high-level plans, and she filled in the structure, provided key details, and drove the projects to completion. 

“[I needed] to give her the rough bones of the project, and I needed her to pick up my vision and advance it…That's exactly what Jamie can do,” Riewe says.

Cole had three major areas of impact:

1. Board materials

Cole partnered with Vibrant's CFO and CEO to present expenditure requests to the executive committee of their board. This was a labor-intensive monthly process that ultimately allocated and approved the funds Riewe needed to drive growth. Cole defined steps to ensure the process ran smoothly, collating requests from the CFO and CEO and delivering them to the board.

2. Hiring

Cole prioritized the roles for which Vibrant needed to hire and drove the recruiting effort, while simultaneously navigating significant leadership transitions. She defined the process for each role - not only for a single hire, but at scale. She assigned roles and deadlines, measured cross-functional performance, and helped modernize people operations (HR). Her detailed work plan helped speed Vibrant’s hiring push along.

3. Improved interactions with his organization

This was one unexpected benefit that Cole provided. Because she coordinated Riewe’s time and made sure it went to the right places, Riewe was able to forge strong connections and relationships with his own leadership team. This sense of connection started within his own CoS relationship and grew from there.

In these three areas and beyond, Riewe leaned on Cole as an advisor. She served as a second set of eyes for him, and employed her breadth of experience to help Riewe capture the right opportunities

“I needed an advisor I could talk to, someone who knows all of the things that are going on and is able to understand the context [for my organization]...I didn’t even know I needed that,” Riewe said.

Vibrant’s engagement with Vannin Chief of Staff resulted in hiring 20 of 80 new hires. Cole built a process from scratch that sets up clear expectations and processes to hire the remaining open roles. Board materials have been delivered 100% on time since Cole’s arrival, and Riewe has gotten all of his requests for funding approved without modification. Weekly operations of the technology leadership team are now standardized and structured, and the whole team is tied together for better collaboration.

Now that Cole has laid the groundwork for a smooth 10x growth experience, she is working on finding her replacement. This person will take the baton from Cole and continue supporting Riewe as he navigates an exciting new chapter for his team and organization.

Cole “is able to give me the counseling and advice that I need…That's the thing that I'm going to miss most once she graduates and goes on to her next role,” Riewe said.