Rock Stars, Transformation and Professional Services

At Virtual, we are constantly looking for ways to innovate, grow, and drive client success. It’s what fuels us. And, it’s our team that brings this to life every day.

We recently had a key team member decide to take a new direction with their career. This change in staffing could have been approached as a challenge. But we saw it as an opportunity. We took the time to think outside of the box about how we were handling our finance and accounting teams and our operations team. We asked ourselves: How can we bring the full strength of the broader team together to create an organization that is set up for success? At the same time, how can we provide growth and opportunity to folks within our organization – positioning them where they can bring their expertise and make the most significant impact possible?

Successful companies are the ones that are continuously evolving, and this takes a certain type of management approach and culture, which I believe we have. However, it not only drives results for our clients by creating operational efficiencies and centers of excellence, but it gives our employees a chance to do what they do best, and that makes for a happier, more engaged team.

Being open to transformation, we decided that the time had come to collapse a part of our Operations Team. It was formed two and a half years ago when we had merged with two other companies. Making three companies into one is a massive undertaking. The Ops Team was responsible for combining client billing, time tracking, expense reporting, and all the business reporting and analytics that went with it – across three organizations. With the transition now in “Business as Usual” mode, we could redeploy these team members based on their strengths to other areas.

The best part of this is not that the transition is over (although HELLULAH!), but reevaluating our structure gave us the opportunity to promote three of our rock stars. One of my favorite things is watching my team members grow professionally and advance their careers. On a personal level, I can say, that I am thrilled to see these colleagues excel and shine every day.

Christina Zagami is being promoted to Senior Director of Client Finance & Accounting. Christina will have responsibility for Client Billing as well as Client Accounting. She will also lead an effort looking across the organization for automation opportunities, streamlining processes and building checks and balances. Christina has been with Virtual for eleven years and holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Suffolk University.

Jessica Jimenez is being promoted to Senior Manager of Client Accounting. Jess started her career with Virtual ten years ago as an Accounting Coordinator. Jessica has done all facets of the client accounting work before moving over to the Manager of Client Billing. She holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. Jess will oversee the Accounting and Mail & Payment Processing (MAPP) Teams while leveraging the leadership, expertise, and experience of the strong leads in these areas.

Johanna Ferrell is being promoted to Client Billing Specialist. Johanna has been with us for two years as an Operations Coordinator. She will oversee the billing of Virtual’s more than 100 clients. Johanna holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Roanoke College.

Terry Lowney is the COO of Virtual, Inc. She has been with the company for 17 years when she began in a part-time membership and accounting role. Over the years, Terry has used her leadership and expertise in financial management and strategy to launch, transform, and grow dozens of associations and consortia. Terry studied finance at Northeastern University.

Connect with Terry on LinkedIn.