Our Experience.
Our Story.
Sacha Connor
Founder & CEO
Years on the Inside:
18 years as a marketer and business leader– agency and client side
15+ years fully remote while leading distributed, hybrid & remote teams
Sacha’s Virtual Leadership Credentials
More than a Decade of Virtual Work Experience
- Fully remote for 15 years
- Led large, hybrid teams responsible for over $250 million in sales
- The first fully remote member of the leadership team of a $1B division
- Coached dozens of direct and dotted line reports
- Owned agency and external partner relationships
- Over 15,000 hours of leading virtual meetings, presentations, remote brainstorms, influencing remotely, team building and coaching
Public Speaker and Published Author
- Speaking engagements include IDEO U’s Creative Confidence Podcast, Diversity Best Practices’ EmERGe Summit, FlexJob’s TRaD Conference, Remote Year’s Future of Work Summit and the Pennsylvania Bar Association
- Published or quoted by Wharton Exec Ed, The Wall Street Journal, SHRM, the Network of Executive Women, Lehigh University, Remote.Co, and FlexJobs
Pioneered Virtual Work at The Clorox Company
- One of the first marketers to work remotely full-time
- Founded the first-ever Virtual Workforce Employee Resource Group, which now serves over 750 global members and influenced the C-suite. See more…
Trusted and Established Expert
- Guidance, coaching and program implementation for large enterprises to mid-sized agencies
- Spanning a variety of industries, including consumer packaged goods, retail, tech, food, healthcare, advertising, and financial services
Laïla von Alvensleben
Team Effectiveness Lead,
Certified Instructor
Years on the Inside:
5 years leading people operations and culture in distributed and remote-first organizations
9+ years of thought leadership in virtual and remote work
15+ years of expertise in online faciliation and design thinking
Laïla’s Virtual Leadership Credentials
Leader in Distributed Team Employee Experience and Culture
As Head of Culture & Collaboration at Mural, and previously their Head of People Operations:
- Played a key role in in Mural’s hypergrowth from 100+ to 1000+ remote employees across 20 countries and onboarding during acquisition of LUMA
- Built an enjoyable and safe workplace remote-first culture, leading to Mural’s certification as a Great Place To Work® for two years
- Organized award winning in-person, hybrid and virtual team building events and company retreats
Expert in Online Facilitation and Design Thinking
- Delivered online workshops on UX design, design thinking, team building, and collaboration practices for remote and hybrid teams
- Created case studies, method guides, templates and frameworks to improve collaboration among for expert facilitators and distributed organizations
- Designed and hosted virtual All Hands and webinars for audiences of up to 1000+ participants
Thought Leader in Remote Work
- Recognized as a top 50 Remote Enabler in the Remote Influencer Report
- Public speaker at multiple conferences, including Running Remote, IxDA, NEXT, Digitale Leute Summit, Atlassian Team and iToday Summit
- Featured in Forbes, t3N, PCMA, and Fast Company as well as books How the Future Works, Rituals for Virtual Meetings, and Remote Works
Terry Wiener
Remote & Distributed Work Strategist; Hybrid and Remote Team Effectiveness Lead;
Certified Instructor
Years on the Inside:
15+ years as a workplace and organization effectiveness thought leader, enabling new ways of working
10 years leading teams to implement hybrid and remote work by integrating tech, real estate, and behaviors/norms
10+ years of consulting and change management experience
Terry’s Virtual Leadership Credentials
A Decade of Enabling New Ways of Working in Hybrid and Remote Environments
- As Head of Virtual-First at Dropbox, a $2B company, partnered with leaders in Comms, Real Estate, and IT to drive the vision and strategies for the virtual-first work operating model and related transformation and change initiatives
- As Director of Workplace Integration for Genentech, a $26B company, prototyped flexible, shared work environments for hybrid teams across HR, Sales & Marketing, Finance, Manufacturing, and Research
- Designed scaled processes for implementing flexible work guidelines, team working agreements, collaboration tools, and flexible spaces to enable new work practices
Extensive Virtual Team Leadership Experience
- Led a hybrid team of 15 direct reports as the Director of Workplace Integration for Genentech
- Led a virtual-first team of over 20 cross-functional team members as the Head of Virtual-First at Dropbox
- As a remote consultant, led distributed project teams at UKG
Dedicated to Supporting Leaders in Navigating Transformation
- Supported Genentech business leaders as they guided their organizations through the change – from working in traditional office environments to working more flexibly across different locations and time zones
- Designed engagement and adoption strategies to help employees shift behaviors and mindsets to adopt new workplaces and new ways of working on distributed teams
- Developed team members to embrace role as changes agents, focusing on consulting competencies and strategic agility as they customized delivery approaches to effectively engage leaders and maximize impact
Erica Roberts
Government Client Lead,
Certified Instructor
Years on the Inside:
15+ years of federal government service
10 years of leading hybrid and remote teams within the government
15 years of providing training and coaching virtually
Erica’s Virtual Leadership Credentials
Pioneer of Leading Hybrid Teams within the U.S. Government
- As a Training Director, was the first leader in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division to have a mostly remote team, with support staff in Washington DC, and most of the career professionals located across the country
- In 2009, introduced the idea of using webinars to train virtually within the U.S. government
- While in a Senior Executive role for the U.S. Environmental Protectional Agency led a national office from Research Park Triangle, NC for an agency with headquarters in Washington DC
Dedicated to Supporting People in their Leadership Journey
- 20 years of leadership within the National Black MBA Association, including as Founder and Interim President of the Greater Maryland Chapter, and award-winning President of Washington DC Chapter
- 10 years of training and coaching high potential executives and managers to guide them toward professional empowerment and rewarding career paths through individual coaching and career enhancement training courses
- International Coaching Federation Associate Certified Coach, certified DISCSTYLES Communication Consultant, Certified Project Management Professional through PMI
Tom Pitts
Senior Sales Partner
Years on the Inside:
40+ years solution selling of learning programs to corporations
30+ years focused on online learning programs for individual skills development
20+ years working in remote and hybrid teams
10+ most recent years focused on virtual cohort learning programs
Tom’s Credentials
Supported CorpU to introduce the first virtual cohort learning platform for leadership development
- Joined CorpU in 2012 as it created leadership development content with top faculty experts from leading Business Schools.
- Worked with large enterprises, including Merck, Colgate-Palmolive, Comcast, Campbell Soup and others to provide the innovative CorpU programs which were delivered in cohort groups of 25-75 people, with a mix of on-demand content, online collaboration, application exercises, and live virtual peer and faculty discussions.
- CorpU was acquired by Udemy in 2021 and the programs are now provided under the Udemy Business Leadership Academy brand.
Pioneer in selling technology assisted learning tools and programs to enterprises
- Remained at the forefront of providing the most up-to-date technology solutions to enable learning as the technology evolved from touchscreen computer & laser disc learning systems, to CD-ROM, to web-based, and now AI-enabled programs.
- CorpU/Udemy leverages AI to provide in-depth learning analytics providing insights gathered from its cohort experiences.
- Successfully sold impactful learning programs to global organizations. Developed new customers and retained and expanded programs with existing customers.
Tory Fitzgerald
Project Manager
Years on the Inside:
15+ years of project management for hybrid and remote teams
5+ years working fully remotely
Tory’s Virtual Leadership Credentials
Over a Decade of Virtual Team Project Management Experience
- 15 years of experience managing multiple complex projects simultaneously while working in hybrid and remote teams.
- Provide project planning and detailed execution support for Virtual Work Insider to deliver live training sessions and speaking engagements to thousands of learners.
- Built and implemented new processes to improve efficiency and hit deadlines.
Virtual Team Leadership & Training Experience
- 6 years as a supply chain people leader at Target – managing 50 people, leading work responsibilities across warehouse sites, and conducting virtual training.
- The first fully remote people leader and only remote member of the leadership team for MPParts.
- Created and executed multiple training programs across locations for Target and MPParts.
- Upskilled 25 employees into remote work for MPParts during the pandemic, then supported the transition to a hybrid work enviornment.
- Receive MBA through 100% virtual program, working with global classmates.
Virtual Work Insider’s Experience Proves Different Than Any Other
Sacha Connor
Founder & CEO
Years on the Inside:
18+ years as a marketer and business leader– agency and client side
15+ years fully remote while leading hybrid & remote teams
7+ years teaching thousands of learners hybrid and remote leadership skills
“As the Insider, I know how hard it is to lead across distance. My 18 years of first-hand experience as a marketer, business leader, and innovator within a Fortune 500 company—and 15 years of leading distributed, hybrid and remote teams while working remotely—has given me the knowledge to guide with the perspective of all leaders, partners, employees and the business at heart. I’ve put in years of time, energy, passion, and strategic planning into sharing virtual skills that build success stories.”
Sacha Connor, Founder and CEO
Terry Wiener
Remote & Distributed Work Strategist;
Team Effectiveness Lead, Certified Instructor
Years on the Inside:
15+ years as workplace and organizational effectiveness thought leader
10 years of leading teams to implement hybrid & remote work
10+ years of consulting and change management experience
Laïla von Alvensleben
Team Effectiveness Lead,
Certified Instructor
Years on the Inside:
5 years leading people operations and culture in distributed and remote-first organizations
9+ years of thought leadership in virtual and remote work
15+ years of expertise in online facilitation and design thinking
Erica Roberts
Government Client Lead,
Certified Instructor
Years on the Inside:
15+ years of federal government service
10 years of leading hybrid and remote teams within the government
15 years of providing training and coaching virtually
Tom Pitts
Senior Sales Partner
Years on the Inside:
40+ years solution selling of learning programs to corportations
30+ years focused on online learning programs for individual skills development
20+ years working in remote and hybrid teams
10+ most recent years focused on virtual cohort learning programs
Tory Fitzgerald
Project Manager
Years on the Inside:
15+ years of project management for hybrid and remote teams
5+ years working fully remotely
Succeeding in today’s virtual world of work takes a unique skill set and deliberate intentions. Have the right team show you how.
“It’s so helpful to work with someone who has the experience of working in a client organization, and who has also worked within agencies like ours.”
Carolyn Parodi
Managing Director
Sacha Connor: Our Founder’s Story
18 years
leading business
15 years
fully remote while leading hybrid and remote teams
We’ve been on the inside, client and agency-side.
Career and Life: The Path to Virtual
I’m actually a marketer by trade. I’m also a wife and mom of two school-aged kids. After growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and graduating from Lehigh University with a degree in marketing I started my career in advertising account management. First at a small agency, Backe Communications followed by 3 years at Goodby Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. Client side was my next calling, moving me across the Bay to the Clorox Company in Oakland. And over the next 14 years I helped build brands worth multiple millions of dollars through leadership positions in Marketing, Sales and New Product Innovation, including Hidden Valley ranch dressing, Brita water filtration, Kingsford charcoal, and finally Pine-Sol and Liquid Plumr.
It was all essential in learning to dissect and influence consumer behavior, while understanding the importance of crafting great stories and leading and coaching people across so many backgrounds.
The big move came after the birth of our first child, when my husband and I decided that we needed to go back to Philadelphia so our children could grow up near their families. It was the hardest career decision I’ve ever had to make, because I loved my job and the success and mentorship I’d found in the Bay area. Which is why I’ll never stop feeling grateful that my senior leadership said YES to my proposal to stay in my role from 3,000 miles and three time zones away. After all this was 2010. The iPhone was relatively new, FaceTime, Slack and Zoom were either infant or non-existent—and I was responsible for millions of dollars in business. So I didn’t skip a beat. I set out to make the senior leaders feel as if I were right there, and that the business and culture were cared for as if I was. Not only did I succeed, I showed them that what I learned how to do was applicable to the 95% of the company since it had become so geographically distributed over time.
My, very personal, story is the reason why Clorox’s virtual work program ORBIT, the 750 and growing member Employee Resource Group spanning 21 countries, exists. It created and improved virtual collaboration company-wide, influenced tech and HR strategies, became a learning lab for IT, made HR training remotely available, and established techniques to combat distance bias.
So whether your story is personal, or simply, your company too has a need for change—I’m here to show you why and how virtual work 100% matters now and always.