How Ryan built a measurable, people-first alumni program from a blank brief – and a CEO mandate – in two years.
Melinda Wedding, Manager of Alumni Relations at Ryan, walks through how she built a program from a blank brief into a structured operating model anchored on the firm's three key results: People, Client, and Value. She shares how she made the business case when no one could tell her what ROI to chase – including the $31M of revenue currently driven by principal-level alumni and boomerangs – and covers the Workday-triggered invitations sent 30 to 60 days after a new hire joins, the affinity-points incentives that drove internal adoption, and the alumni advisory board now shaping what comes next.
If your program has executive backing but no playbook, this is a 101 you can actually borrow from – which battles to pick, which metrics to start with, and why progress matters more than perfection.
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