Keynotes on how careers and results actually get made inside organizations

Andrea Wasserman spent more than 20 years running businesses at Nordstrom, Hudson’s Bay, Nine West, Verizon, Yahoo, and European Wax Center, where she was Chief Commercial Officer. She’s watched talented people advance and plateau from the seat where those decisions get made, and she’s led the cross-functional work that turns a growth plan into results. Her keynotes explain how that works and give audiences tools they can use the following week.

Keynote 1 — How Careers Actually Work Insight Organizations
What separates the people who advance from the people who don’t

Most professionals are taught that strong work gets noticed. Inside large organizations, that’s only partly true. Leaders form views about readiness long before a promotion conversation, based on what they see in meetings, what they hear from peers, and whether they can picture someone operating at the next level. Drawing on two decades of making those calls as an executive, Andrea walks audiences through how advancement decisions get made and what the people who move up do differently: how they make their impact visible without it reading as self-promotion, build relationships above and across, and show judgment before anyone gives them the title.

Attendees leave able to: assess how senior leaders currently see their readiness · connect their work to the outcomes leaders care about · map the relationships and conversations that need to be in place before they ask for a promotion

Best for: employee networks and ERGs, high-potential programs, associations, universities and alumni groups, women’s leadership conferences. An early-career version is available for interns, new graduates, and campus audiences.

Keynote 2 — From Doing the Work to Leading Through Others
What changes at each step up, and how to make the transition

The habits that earn early promotions — owning the work, having the answer, fixing problems personally — turn into a ceiling once the role requires results through other people. Andrea breaks down what changes at each level: what to hand off and how, how to run a meeting that ends in decisions and owners, how to influence stakeholders you don’t control, and how to spend time at the altitude the role requires. Audiences leave with the Executive Express Meeting Framework and the Leadership Altitude Ladder, two tools they can put to work the same week.

Attendees leave able to: identify where they’re still operating as the doer · open and close meetings so they produce decisions, owners, and a clear standard · influence peers and senior leaders without formal authority

Best for: new-manager and director programs, leadership offsites, sales and functional leadership teams. Can be tailored to address how the case for promotion is changing as AI takes on more individual work.

Keynote 3 — Growth Is an Organizational Problem
The cross-functional work behind commercial results

Most commercial plans look sound on paper. Whether they deliver depends on whether marketing, operations, finance, and the field will move together, and on whether the leader driving the plan can get them there. As Chief Commercial Officer at European Wax Center, Andrea’s team reversed a multi-year decline in new guest acquisition and grew new center sales 20% year over year; earlier, her teams relaunched Nordstrom Weddings with partners including Etsy and Blue Nile and launched Verizon’s new store concept. This keynote covers the organizational work behind results like those: building alignment across functions, bringing skeptical stakeholders along, and converting a plan into owned, measurable commitments.

Attendees leave able to: spot where a plan depends on functions the leader doesn’t control · build cross-functional agreements before launch · turn alignment into ownership and follow-through

Best for: retail, consumer, beauty, and franchise conferences; sales kickoffs; commercial and marketing leadership teams.

Please e-mail andrea@theexecutiveexpress.com for more information.

CommerceNext 2025 panel moderator