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Melissa Blakey
Redefine what's possible, give shape to the future—and get there.
Professional Background
Melissa Blakey is a highly skilled Consultant in the Business Advisory Service Delivery Leadership practice at Slalom, where she has made significant contributions towards driving strategic improvements through effective project management. With over 9 years of project and program management experience, Melissa's expertise lies in planning and executing global transformation programs that address complex business and technology initiatives. Her role involves executing optimized governance values and methods, facilitating seamless connections between business objectives and technological capabilities.
In her current position at Slalom, Melissa focuses on complex program management activities that include essential functions such as status tracking, risk and issue remediation planning, dependency mapping, and managing technical tasks. Her proficiency in these areas ensures that stakeholder expectations are met with high-quality outcomes, while also maintaining strict adherence to project timelines. Melissa excels at acting as a liaison between technology teams and business stakeholders, which is crucial for ensuring that all project deliverables meet required standards and are aligned with strategic business goals.
Prior to her role at Slalom, Melissa honed her skills within several prestigious organizations, including EY, CCC Information Services, and JPMorgan Chase. Each of these roles helped Melissa develop a robust foundation in project management, equipping her with the tools necessary to tackle the dynamics of complex projects across various industries.
Education and Achievements
Melissa’s educational journey reflects a commitment to understanding both the technological and analytical aspects of business. She earned her Master of Science (M.S.) in Business Information Technology from DePaul University, where she developed a keen understanding of how technology can enhance business processes and drive efficiency. Her foundational knowledge in science and mathematics originated from her undergraduate studies, which include a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Mathematics and Geographic Information Science from Chicago State University, along with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Physics from Spelman College. These academic experiences not only provided Melissa with critical analytical skills but also enriched her understanding of data-driven decision-making.
Throughout her studies, Melissa has achieved notable academic milestones and has actively engaged in various extracurricular activities that have complemented her formal education, thus enhancing her skill set in project and program management.
Notable Experience
Melissa's diverse career includes significant roles such as Senior Consultant at EY, where she was responsible for steering project initiatives that catered to large scale clients. This experience allowed her to fine-tune her abilities to manage multiple stakeholders and ensure project alignment with client expectations.
Her tenure at CCC Information Services as a Release and Project Manager saw Melissa adeptly managing project timelines and deliverables. Additionally, her role at JPMorgan Chase as a Project Management Associate equipped her with firsthand experience in the financial services sector, further expanding her understanding of complex project environments.
In addition to her consulting background, Melissa's early career reflects her commitment to public service and education. As a Legislative Intern at the Illinois House of Representatives, she was exposed to the workings of government and public policy, while her experience as an AVID and Mathematics Tutor at Chicago Public Schools highlights her dedication to supporting educational initiatives and mentoring students.
Moreover, she also gained valuable experience in technology integration as an intern at Deloitte Consulting and contributed to engineering projects during her time as a Gas Turbine Performance Engineer Intern at GE. Melissa's early research experience at the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research at the University of Chicago demonstrates her exceptional ability to apply analytical and scientific principles to real-world challenges.
Overall, Melissa Blakey’s career is characterized by her strong track record in project management, a solid academic foundation, and diverse experience across multiple sectors. Her ability to manage complex projects while ensuring alignment with strategic business objectives positions her as a valuable asset within any organization pursuing ongoing transformation and improvement.
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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:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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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.
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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 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.
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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.