A Certified Woman-Owned Business

Colleen Thompson is an experienced automotive executive, having launched many winning products and built several Program Management Office (PMO) structures, including two internal startups for both Digital and Energy products.

As the PMO Technical Director for automotive products, she framed global product strategies for the CEO and leadership team, including new technology rollouts, Paris Climate Accord compliance, and product line simplification. She leveraged Business Process Engineering to eliminate or simplify processes, build tools, and create simple C Suite reporting.

Colleen is adept at engaging the right stakeholders to build synergistic solutions to challenging problems. She has worked across a multifunctional, multi-business unit structure to drive win-win solutions, building cross functional teams and coaching them to create better solutions together. This approach has resulted in the successful launches of over 10 highly profitable global products across many segments, generating billions in revenue. She led a cross-functional team that re-opened a shuttered manufacturing facility, which is now a showcase for Electric Vehicle production.

Knowing that nothing happens without a highly engaged and excellent team, Colleen's greatest joy is in developing others. She developed both onboarding and professional skills training. She cut onboarding learning curves in half by creating context around the work. She coached Program Management leaders on how to excel through developing a deeper understanding of the customer, proactively anticipating risk, framing decisions clearly, building impactful strategies, and facilitating teams to deliver with “better together” excellence.

Colleen is a community leader for non-profit startups. She has led teams to support her local food bank through large scale food collections, fundraising activities, and a community garden. She is most proud of the partnerships she facilitated between women in transitional housing and women leaders in her firm to help unhoused women move to independence. Most recently, she led CEO Roundtables for local business leaders, and helped them navigate through the many people and operational challenges of thriving through and beyond COVID. 

As the principal of BridgeBuilding Strategies, Colleen helps small business and non-profit leaders articulate their strategy, upskill their teams, and support them through simple repeatable processes. She is the US Affiliate of Strategic Rebellion, providing strategic “what’s your ask” training worldwide.  Colleen is licensed to provide award-winning training from Interaction Associates on effective facilitation.  

Colleen has an MBA in Marketing/Market Research and a BA in Hospitality Management and French from Michigan State University, where she co-authored several publications regarding the measurement of service quality in the hospitality industry. She holds several certifications:

• Cornell Product Management Certificate
• PMI Program Management Professional (PMP)
• Scaled Agile Framework for Enterprises (SAFe) Agilist and Lean Portfolio Management 
• Certified Instructor, Two Minute Revolution (© Strategic Rebellion)
• Certified Instructor, Essential Facilitation (© Interaction Associates)

Colleen's Board Membership includes:

Automotive Women's Alliance Foundation (AWAF) Coaching Co-Chair

GM Executive Alumni Club Membership Director