CEO PANEL TALK: FRACTIONAL FREEDOM

You have successfully stepped out from corporate into running your own business. What needs to happen for you to thrive, achieve stable revenues, AND enjoy your time and life on your own terms?

For many fresh entrepreneurs, the answer is fractional leadership – a new form of client relationship that brings stability and long-term engagement to both the client and the supplier while preserving flexibility and business growth opportunities.

Because this form of leadership is still relatively new, we decided to speak with a few experts who have been working as fractional leaders for quite a while.

Welcome to our June CEO Panel Talk on the topic FRACTIONAL FREEDOM – How to Ignite and Deploy a Fractional Leadership Business Model that Frees Your Time, Boosts Your Income, and Brings the Stability You Crave as an Entrepreneur.

Join us to listen to inspiring stories of innovators in fractional leadership who can inspire your own business journey.

OUR SPEAKERS:

AMY KAPOLNEK is a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer and Strategic Advisor for emerging and indie female-founded businesses from DTC (beauty, wellness and medical) to B2B (consulting, home, education, etc.). She stands as the visionary behind The FWRD Group, a growth consulting firm specializing in high-impact advisory, strategic planning, and Fractional CMO services for indie, female-founded businesses.

She has been a fractional professional for 10 years, long before the term became popular, and has a portfolio that includes not only indie businesses but also Fortune 100 companies. Her corporate portfolio includes launching Gucci Beauty and Burberry Perfumes (Coty), rebranding Olay, developing new product categories for Pantene, and launching five new brands within P&G Ventures (Procter & Gamble).

MELISSA CARSON is a leadership endurance coach and people strategy advisor who helps leaders and organizations build sustainable high performance for the long game.

After more than 25 years in global HR leadership and talent strategy roles at Accenture and EPAM, Melissa founded Canopy Strategies to address a critical gap: the need for leaders and organizations to not just grow—but to endure. Through a unique blend of leadership coaching, organizational advisory, and practical frameworks, she helps executives, HR leaders, and teams rethink how they lead, grow, and sustain their impact in a world without finish lines.

RYAN JAMIESON is the founder of Knit Security, a boutique cybersecurity advisory founded in 2023. He works to help small and midsized businesses protect their data and systems from the bad guys on the internet.

Prior to Knit, Ryan worked to strengthen the internal control environment protecting the most sensitive data for thousands of clients across the globe at Ernst & Young, built the security program at Take-Two Interactive, parent company to Rockstar Games and 2K Games, served as the BISO for North American operations at RTL Group, and spent nearly seven years protecting cardmembers and their data at American Express.

SUSIE TRUJILLO is the founder of an operations consultancy for early-stage startups called STRUC. For over 10 years, she worked with some of the most innovative founders in tech by helping them untangle themselves from the weeds so they can focus more on big picture strategy and fundraising.

Industry agnostic, opportunity, and stage specific, the core of her services help define and implement foundational operational  processes and systems across all business units of growing companies. Her proprietary ‘STRUC Method’ is typically a 24-week (6 month) engagement to get companies to a Series A.

Susie is regularly referred by VCs to de-risk their investments and to be a conduit to stronger connections and communication among portcos. Referred to as a “platform as a service”, she’s an official partner of Mantis VC, GANAS and has been featured on the Hustle Fund podcast.

WHAT WE WILL DISCUSS:

Some of the topics on our panel discussion agenda include:

1. How our speakers define fractional leadership and how they experience it in practice.
2. Why they decided to choose this business model for their consultancies.
3. What their daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly agendas look like, and how they master working with several clients at the same time.
4. The contractual specifics aimed at protecting both the clients and the fractional leaders and nurture the new type of relationship.
5. How they pursue scalability for their own business practices.
6. How our speakers navigate income stability and time management in order to experience fractional freedom.

At the end of our panel discussion, you will leave with:

1. A clear understanding of what fractional leadership is and how it can work in practice.
2. Clarity on how fractional leadership can serve small and medium-sized companies and scale-ups.
3. Reflections on whether this model could suit you and your emerging business.
4. Practical insider advice on what you should pursue – and avoid – if you want to become a fractional leader.
5. And so much more. 

WHO SHOULD JOIN OUR CEO PANEL TALK?

This event is open to members of THE CEO ELEVATION CIRCLE and our extended network. Any senior woman leader interested in exiting corporate to start her own business successfully is welcome to join us. 

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT DURING OUR CEO PANEL TALK?

Here is the plan for the event:

1. 17.45 – 18.00: Informal welcome and warm-up.  
2. 18.00 – 18.45: Guided panel discussion on what fractional leadership looks like in practice.
3. 18.45 – 19.20: Q&A with the audience.
4. 19.20 – 19.30: Wrap-up and upcoming event invitations. 

LOGISTICS

• Our CEO PANEL TALK takes place virtually, on Zoom.
• You’ll need the app installed on your computer. Using Zoom on a mobile device will significantly reduce your participation experience.
• The virtual doors open at 17:45 CET for informal chit-chat and warm-up.
• The session is recorded. Provided that you register for this event, you’ll have access to the video and audio recording afterward.
• Your full mental and emotional presence is required during the whole event. We invite you to have your camera on throughout to avoid interruptions or multitasking. This is an investment in yourself—respect your time.
• Photos of the virtual room will be taken during the event. By registering, you consent to photography being used later for marketing purposes.  

QUESTIONS?

We look forward to meeting you online on Monday, June 16, 2025, from 18.00 CET!

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Cristina directly via WhatsApp at +420 776 574 925 or email her at cristina.muntean@vornica.com.

See you at our CEO PANEL TALK – FRACTIONAL FREEDOM!