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Joan Chrestay
Senior Business Leader/Consultant in Business Development and Higher Education
Professional Background
Joan Chrestay is an esteemed senior business executive with a rich background in business development and higher education. Her extensive career spans multiple high-impact roles where she has been able to innovate and foster growth in various organizations. Joan is known for her expertise in developing innovative projects and addressing complex operational challenges. Throughout her career, she has showcased her leadership by serving as an advisor to seven university presidents, as well as a Mayor and as Philadelphia's Managing Director. Joan has also collaborated with numerous Boards of Directors, leveraging her wealth of knowledge to influence strategic decisions in her areas of expertise.
A dynamic leader, Joan has effectively worked alongside visionary CEOs and has successfully led cross-divisional and multi-sector teams. She has a proven ability to drive project development through comprehensive assessments, strategic planning, project design, fundraising efforts, government advocacy, and implementation. Her familiarity with both the corporate and educational sectors places her in a unique position to bridge the gap between academia and industry, ensuring that projects align with broader community needs while promoting sustainable growth.
Education and Achievements
Joan's educational journey is marked by a commitment to professional development and expertise in her field. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University, which laid the groundwork for her career. Additionally, she furthered her studies by obtaining certificates from the prestigious Harvard University. The Institute for Educational Management certificate honed her leadership skills pertinent to managing educational institutions, while the 'Women and Power: Leadership for a New Era' certificate provided her with critical insights into the evolving dynamics of leadership, especially for women in power.
Building on this foundation, Joan pursued a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree at Temple University. Her training in social work enhances her approach in business development, particularly in understanding community dynamics and addressing the needs of diverse populations. This skillset has proved invaluable in her roles throughout her career.
Professional Journey
Joan has held numerous significant positions within respected institutions, prominently contributing her expertise to advance organizational goals. As the Executive Director of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program at Community College of Philadelphia, Joan played a pivotal role in supporting small businesses by providing them educational resources and networking opportunities that are essential for growth and sustainability. Her leadership in this position demonstrated her ability to foster connections between emerging entrepreneurs and the broader business community.
Prior to this role, Joan served as the President of JFC Consulting, where she marked her footprint by leading various consulting projects aimed at improving organizational effectiveness. Her tenure as Vice President at Saint Joseph's University further highlights her significant contributions to higher education, overseeing key areas in external affairs that fostered collaboration with external partners and stakeholders.
Joan's extensive experience includes serving as the Associate Dean for External Affairs in the College of Engineering at Villanova University. In this role, she was instrumental in cultivating relationships with industry leaders and funding agencies, further showing her prowess in government and community relations. Additionally, her position as the Director of Corporate, Foundation, and Government Relations at Villanova University underscored her capacity to engage with diverse stakeholders, attract funding, and promote the interests of the institution.
Her prior experience is marked by her leadership roles at the Allegheny Health Education and Research Foundation (AHERF), where she served as Vice President for Government and Community Relations. In this position, she bridged healthcare initiatives with community needs, advocating for programs that benefit public health.
Notable Achievements
Joan Chrestay's career is characterized by remarkable achievements that demonstrate her commitment to innovation and excellence. Her expertise in project development and management has led to successful initiatives that have made positive impacts in both business and educational sectors. Among her notable achievements are:
- Designing and implementing comprehensive business development programs that successfully foster community engagement and entrepreneurship.
- Leading strategic initiatives that connect higher education institutions with industry, enhancing workforce readiness among graduates.
- Bringing together multi-sector partnerships that address operational challenges and develop sustainable solutions.
- Advocating for policy changes that benefit educational institutions, enhancing funding streams and community support.
- Mentoring emerging leaders in business and education, empowering them to realize their potential and fostering the next generation of innovators.
Conclusion
In an evolving landscape where innovative thinking and practical solutions are crucial, Joan Chrestay continues to be a beacon for aspiring leaders in both business development and higher education. Her specialized knowledge, coupled with her extensive experience, enables her to navigate complex operational challenges while delivering impactful results across various sectors. Joan's career is a testament to the power of visionary leadership and a commitment to driving positive change that resonates within communities and institutions.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.