I build the operating backbone behind companies at their hardest moments.

Post-merger. Post-raise. Mid-transformation. When the work is important, crosses every function, and needs one experienced owner to take it from decision to done.

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Lift 1A Consulting

01/When to call

Three moments I’m built for.

You just bought something, or raised something. The deal closed, the round landed, and now it has to become one operating business. I integrate acquisitions, stand up the systems and cadence a company needs to run, and build fund and company operations from a blank page.

The plan is clear and nobody owns making it happen. The board has a value-creation plan. The executive team has a transformation to run. The ERP goes in next year. I take ownership of the program across business, technology, vendors, and leadership, and keep it moving.

The way you run has stopped fitting the company you’ve become. Decisions take too long, accountability is fuzzy, the leadership team meets constantly and settles nothing. I redesign how work, decisions, and information move through the organization, including where AI should change the organization itself.

The subject matter changes. The role doesn’t: understand the business fast, create structure, surface the decisions, and own the work through execution.

The next stage

Build for where you are going.

Fifteen years across founder-led, venture-backed, private equity-backed, and large enterprise companies is how I know what becomes important at the next stage before it becomes urgent.

The goal is not to make a small company behave like a large one. It is enough structure to support the next stage, and none that the business does not need yet.

02/Selected Outcomes

The work behind the moments.

4

acquired companies integrated into one operating business within six months.

0 → 1

institutional private credit fund operations built from a blank page for a founder-led firm.

$100M+

value-creation program under private equity ownership, alongside McKinsey.

18,000

employees across 46 countries moved onto one global Workday platform, on time and on budget.

6

separate sales organizations brought into one global sales force.

40+

regional payroll providers consolidated into one global model.

03/What each one involves

Looks simple. Isn’t.

Each of the three moments arrives looking like one job. It is always several. Someone needs to see the whole picture while staying close enough to the details to keep it moving.

04/Background

About Vashti Chandler

Vashti Chandler, Principal of Lift 1A Consulting
Vashti Chandler · Principal
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The problems I’m best at solving rarely belong to just one function.

My career has taken me across strategy, operations, technology, transformation, M&A, AI, and complex program leadership. That range has made me especially effective at the points where the problem is important, the answer is unclear, and someone needs to connect the dots across the business.

I’m particularly good at getting into a business quickly, understanding what is actually happening, and turning ambiguity into a practical path forward. Sometimes that means setting strategy. Sometimes it means redesigning an operating model, leading a transformation, integrating an acquisition, building a new capability, or simply getting a complicated initiative unstuck.

I’m also endlessly curious about how companies work. I love learning a new business, recognizing patterns, and using that broader perspective to shape an approach that fits the situation rather than forcing a standard playbook.

Today, I do that work through Lift 1A Consulting, partnering with CEOs, founders, investors, and leadership teams on the problems that rarely fit cleanly into a single job description.

Outside of work, I’m an Aspen native now based in North Carolina and a mom to two girls. I grew up skiing and swimming, spent years teaching spin, and still love an early morning that starts with something active. I’m also an enthusiastic golfer with an unreliable putter and a voracious nonfiction reader, always interested in learning more about the people, ideas, industries, and systems that shape the world around us.

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Independent consulting experience

Current independent work reflects the same range, spanning operating leadership, enterprise transformation, AI, technology, and founder-stage advisory.

  • Operations Lead, Institutional Private Credit Fund Built and ran the operating backbone of a founder-led institutional private credit fund, spanning core systems, HR and benefits, compliance administration, finance operations, vendor management, data rooms, insurance, real estate, and day-to-day operating infrastructure.
  • Program Management, Workday ERP Implementation Led program management and transformation advisory for an end-to-end Workday rollout across HR, finance, and learning, combining executive coordination, change management, and hands-on delivery.
  • Founder-Stage Operating Support, Hospitality Platform Partnered with the founders of an early-stage luxury travel, hospitality, and entertainment venture on positioning, investor materials, business planning, and preparation for investor conversations.
  • Advisory & AI Systems, Supply Chain Technology Advised an enterprise AI company across customer operations, implementation, operating processes, and AI-enabled internal systems, while coaching the team on more effective ways of working.
  • Brand & Website Redesign, Healthcare Technology Led a complete rebrand and website rebuild for a healthcare technology company, from positioning and brand identity through information architecture, copy, design, and launch.

Full-time experience

Full career history
  • Vice President, Strategy & Operations and Chief of Staff to the CEO Crisp · AI-powered consumer intelligence and retail analytics platform Chief of Staff to the CEO. Led post-merger integration following a period of acquisitions, ran company-wide OKR and KPI frameworks and the leadership operating cadence, supported board and investor preparation, and built AI-enabled tools for the executive office.
  • Senior Director, Strategy & Transformation On Location · TKO Led enterprise strategic initiatives and ran the transformation program behind a company-wide revenue and go-to-market redesign for the hospitality business behind the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Masters.
  • Vice President, Growth Transformation Magnit Part of the leadership team running a $100M+ value-creation program under EQT ownership, alongside McKinsey, with a focus on client services, operating model, and delivery.
  • Senior Technical Program Manager Red Hat Project management for a global Workday rollout covering 18,000 employees across 46 countries, delivered on time and on budget, followed by program management for finance transformation initiatives including Anaplan and Informatica MDM.
  • HR Transformation Consultant Deloitte Advised Fortune 500 clients on Workday and Oracle Cloud transformations within Deloitte’s Human Capital practice.
  • Solution Consultant JAGGAER Led enterprise SaaS implementations for global procurement and supplier-management clients.
  • Business Analyst & Project Manager Credit Suisse Business and software specifications, screen design, and data mapping for internally built HR and Corporate Services applications, and project management of the builds across the software development lifecycle.
  • Chinese Works of Art Sotheby’s An early chapter in the world of fine art, bringing together Mandarin studies and a lifelong interest in art history.

Credentials

  • SPHR, Senior Professional in Human Resources
  • Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
  • Double major: B.A. International Studies (Economics) and B.A. East Asian Studies (Chinese), with a minor in Mandarin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

05/FAQs

Frequently asked questions

What types of organizations do you work with?

I work across founder-led companies, venture-backed technology businesses, private equity-backed organizations, and larger enterprises. The common denominator is usually an important initiative that crosses functions and needs experienced leadership to move it forward.

What types of work do you take on?

Almost everything falls into one of the three moments above: integrating an acquisition or standing up a new company or fund; owning a transformation, value-creation, or enterprise technology program; or redesigning how a leadership team and organization run, including where AI should change the work. Fractional strategy and operations leadership and executive special projects sit inside those.

Do you work as a consultant, fractional leader, or interim executive?

All three. The structure depends on the mandate. Some clients need ownership of a defined transformation or program. Others need ongoing fractional COO, Chief of Staff, or strategy and operations leadership.

Are you strategic or hands-on?

Both. I am often brought in because the work requires senior-level judgment without creating another layer between the strategy and the execution.

When does an engagement with Lift 1A make the most sense?

Usually when something is important enough to need senior ownership, complicated enough to span several parts of the organization, and not easily solved inside one existing function.

Can you help a growing company build for scale?

Yes. One of the advantages of working across organizations at very different stages is knowing what tends to become important later. For growing companies, that often means identifying which systems, processes, roles, and operating practices should mature now, which can remain lightweight, and which decisions will be far more difficult to revisit after the business has grown around them. The goal is enough structure to support the next stage, not bureaucracy for its own sake.

06/Contact

Let’s move the work forward.

If your company is in one of those moments, or something like it, I’d be glad to hear what you are working on.

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info@lift1aconsulting.com Lift 1A Consulting