Work in Practice
Real work. Practical improvements. Lasting impact.
Before founding Wren & Co., April spent more than a decade supporting executives, teams, projects, and operations inside complex organizations. These case studies show how she approached real operational problems—and the thinking she now brings to Wren.
These case studies highlight selected work from April’s career before founding Wren & Co. Some identifying details have been limited to respect the organizations and people involved.
01 · Financial Operations & Process Improvement
When a performance problem turned out to be a process problem
The challenge
A travel coordinator was repeatedly struggling to meet Finance’s monthly reconciliation deadlines. The existing process required thousands of corporate travel transactions to be manually reconciled against bank statements, and completing a monthly cycle could take weeks.
What April did
During coaching, April looked beyond the missed deadlines and identified the workflow itself as a significant part of the problem. She partnered with the Power BI specialist who had built an earlier reconciliation tool. He brought the technical expertise; April brought the travel-operation knowledge. Together they redesigned the process around current needs so uploaded bank-statement activity could be connected to transaction numbers and organized by charge type, department and employee.
The outcome
A reconciliation process that had taken weeks each month was reduced to one primary working day, with a second day at most for transactions requiring additional review. Manual entry became minimal, and the travel coordinator stopped missing Finance’s reconciliation deadlines.
PROCESS DIAGNOSIS · PEOPLE LEADERSHIP · FINANCIAL OPERATIONS · POWER BI · CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COLLABORATION
02 · Team Operations Build
Building an administrative team to extend support across a growing organization
The challenge
Administrative support was fragmented across the organization while April’s own executive-support responsibilities had expanded across senior leadership, the Board of Directors and visiting global executives. Demand for broader support was clear, but one person could not sustainably provide it.
What April did
Over roughly a year and a half, April gathered workload data and made the case for additional administrative capacity. After approval, she worked with HR on job descriptions and candidate screening, assembled interview panels, participated in selection, and onboarded and trained new hires. She structured the team around distinct areas of operational ownership, provided ongoing coaching and escalation support, and standardized recurring work where inconsistent intake created friction—including a single request process for company travel.
The outcome
What began as fragmented support became a defined administrative team with clearer ownership, dedicated areas of coverage, structured intake for recurring work, and a management path for coaching and escalation. Instead of trying to personally support every leader who needed help, April built a team capable of extending that support across the organization.
TEAM DESIGN · ADMINISTRATIVE OPERATIONS · HIRING & ONBOARDING · COACHING · WORKLOAD PLANNING · PROCESS STANDARDIZATION
03 · Event Operations & Vendor Recovery
Recovering a major trade-show operation six weeks before showtime
The challenge
Six weeks before a major international aviation trade show in Anaheim, the incumbent exhibit-vendor relationship was breaking down amid unresolved payment issues outside April’s control. Pricing and service expectations were changing, work quality had become a concern, and the vendor was threatening to withhold the company’s existing booth assets and work. The show date was not moving.
What April did
April sourced a replacement exhibit partner and coordinated an unusual transition under deadline. She secured the new vendor, arranged for the incumbent vendor to deliver the existing booth components directly to the show site, and coordinated the new partner’s agreement to receive and assemble a booth they had never worked with before. She then managed the transition through setup and show operations.
The outcome
The booth was successfully installed and the event moved forward. The replacement vendor became an ongoing partner, providing exhibit management and storage at a substantially lower cost and creating a path for future booth upgrades.
EVENT OPERATIONS · VENDOR RECOVERY · NEGOTIATION · LOGISTICS · CONTINGENCY PLANNING · EXECUTION UNDER PRESSURE
04 · Process Design & Compliance Support
Turning a quarterly compliance scramble into a repeatable workflow
The challenge
A digital technology leadership team relied on email to collect quarterly changes required for a compliance reporting process. Responses could arrive late, contain incomplete information, or not arrive at all, creating repeated reminders and manual follow-up as the reporting deadline approached.
What April did
After learning the existing process from its owner, April proposed replacing email collection with a structured Smartsheet workflow. She built a conditional form around the reporting requirements, developed automated notifications, tested and revised the workflow with the process owner, and created standardized instructions and reference materials. Every participant was required to respond, even when there was nothing to report, turning silence into a documented answer.
The outcome
The new workflow created a consistent record of participation, standardized the information collected when changes did need to be reported, and substantially reduced the manual reminding, interpretation, and follow-up required each quarter. After the initial build, ongoing administration was reduced to periodic check-ins and confirmation of completion.
PROCESS DESIGN · WORKFLOW AUTOMATION · RISK AWARENESS · SMARTSHEET · CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COLLABORATION
05 · Technology Adoption & Change Management
Helping turn new meeting technology into an everyday operating tool
The challenge
A global aviation organization was replacing traditional conference-call equipment with Zoom-enabled meeting rooms. The technology represented a significant change for administrative users accustomed to the existing system, and successful implementation required more than installing new equipment.
What April did
April partnered with IT during the rollout, learned and tested the platform and room technology, identified likely user friction points, helped create visual step-by-step training materials, participated in training, and supported administrative users as they learned the new system. As adoption grew, she became an internal resource for meeting support, troubleshooting, licensing, permissions, webinars and account settings.
The outcome
Zoom became part of the organization’s regular meeting infrastructure across geographically dispersed operations. The project reinforced a principle April still brings to operational change: a new tool is not successfully implemented when it is installed. It is implemented when the people who need it can actually use it.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT · TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION · TRAINING & DOCUMENTATION · CROSS-FUNCTIONAL PARTNERSHIP · USER SUPPORT
06 · Executive Operations
Replacing a paper travel system with real-time executive support
The challenge
An executive with frequent domestic and international travel relied on printed folders containing flight, hotel, transportation, meeting and other confirmations. Once an itinerary changed, the paper record could quickly become outdated, leaving the executive to reconcile printed information with emails and new arrangements while already on the road.
What April did
April researched digital travel-management options, evaluated functionality and cost, tested TripIt against the executive’s travel needs, and proposed moving his itineraries to the platform. After receiving approval, she implemented the new process and incorporated it into the travel support she provided.
The outcome
Travel information became accessible in chronological order from a mobile device. When plans changed, April could manage the change remotely, update the itinerary, and give the executive current information without requiring him to reconcile a paper folder against emails and messages. A later written recommendation from the executive independently described her support of complex global itineraries and travel logistics as helping keep travel smooth and efficient.
EXECUTIVE SUPPORT · TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION · TRAVEL OPERATIONS · PROCESS IMPROVEMENT · PROACTIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING
07 · Executive Operations at Scale
From single-executive support to point of contact for an entire executive suite
The challenge
April was hired to support one division president, with secondary support to two operational leaders. Within a year, that division’s leadership had turned over entirely — the division was dissolved and absorbed into the corporate office, which was consolidating a newly formed global aviation group. What had been a single-executive role suddenly needed to cover an incoming CEO, CFO, COO/CAO, a Managing Director relocating internationally, and, later, a Chief Commercial Officer — with those leaders and their direct reports regularly working from New Zealand, London, Australia, West Africa, and rotating international conventions.
What April did
She rebuilt her role around the organization’s actual shape rather than a fixed job description — managing a mix of internal and externally-run executive calendars (including liaising with an incoming CEO’s outside team), coordinating a Managing Director’s transition from an overseas office by working directly with his outgoing international assistant, and becoming the default point of contact for board activity, IT troubleshooting, and finance reporting questions because she was the one person who reliably knew where everyone was, why, and who they’d been meeting with.
The outcome
What began as support for one executive became the sole administrative backbone for an entire C-suite operating across five-plus time zones simultaneously. Leadership across the organization — including regional COOs she wasn’t formally assigned to — routed questions and coordination through her because she had become the fastest, most reliable path to an answer.
EXECUTIVE OPERATIONS · MULTI-TIME-ZONE COORDINATION · ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSITION · CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COORDINATION · SCALING UNDER GROWTH
08 · Board & Governance Support
Building a repeatable system for board-ready materials and meeting execution
The challenge
Quarterly board meetings required compiling, formatting, and distributing packets that regularly ran 250+ pages, pulled from multiple contributors across the business. Without a consistent system, formatting and branding varied cycle to cycle, and meeting-day logistics — AV setup, troubleshooting, and catering timed to the agenda — added additional risk on the days when things most needed to go right.
What April did
She built and maintained a shared template that standardized formatting and branding across every contributor’s input, then owned the full production cycle each quarter — compiling, editing, collating, and binding the finished packet. On meeting days, she set up and troubleshot AV directly and coordinated catering to align precisely with the agenda’s natural breaks.
The outcome
Board materials became consistent, polished, and predictable cycle over cycle, and meeting-day execution ran without disruption — giving leadership one reliable point of accountability for the entire board meeting experience, from the packet in front of them to the room they sat in.
BOARD SUPPORT · GOVERNANCE · PROCESS STANDARDIZATION · MEETING OPERATIONS · ATTENTION TO DETAIL
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