This month, we asked Lauren Ali, our Operations Manager, to give us a picture of where she came from and what she brings to the CMRRA team.
I’ve been working in the music industry for a very long time. Over 20 years were spent in performing rights at SOCAN – in very different roles, most notably as a Business Analyst/Project Manager in the Corporate Planning and Business Change department, where I participated in several process reengineering projects and developed project management standards. I also simultaneously held the position of Privacy Officer – a very distinct role which I was very honoured to take on. I left the music business and started working for a well-known global commercial real estate company (CBRE), as a Continual Improvement Associate in the Performance and Innovation Management Office. In this role, I led the business process management (BPM) program and honed new skills in process mapping and quality management tools and techniques. I heard about the opportunity at CMRRA and subsequently met with Lori Ellis, our VP of Operations and Sandra Nettleton, Director of Licensing & Royalties, to discuss the new role and how my knowledge and experience could help the team. They were wonderful, and the rest is history. My role today continues to evolve with the changing priorities at CMRRA.
What is your CMRRA worldview?
CMRRA is a great place to work! We have good people here, across the board – all dedicated to CMRRA’s purpose and doing the work to support our clients. There’s an immense amount of knowledge and expertise. Everybody here has an important part to play.
My focus is on getting the job done and finding process improvements within the CMRRA teams whether that means streamlining a process with the pay-as-you-press department, implementing new tools like Salesforce, or improving relationships with licensees so that we can meet deadlines. I do my best to engage people and project positivity, because I believe that when you relate well to, and take care of the people, the people take care of the work – so, from an operations standpoint, that’s big! It’s the same approach I take to communicating with our customers – it’s building the relationship to ensure that we get what we need, when we need it.
What are you listening to?
There’s no hiding I’m very much a Josh Groban fan. Coming into work every day I listen to a few songs (I have a few favourites) and it just sets me up for the day. His music is therapeutic and as I get older, I need more of that and less of the other stuff.
[We followed up with Lauren on a recommendation for a Josh Groban song, and she came up with “February Song” as a firm favourite. The tune was written by Josh Groban, Marius De Vries and John Ondrasik and is published by Universal Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing and BMG Rights Management.]
Thinking about becoming a client of CMRRA? Already a client but you have questions? Email us at [email protected] and we’ll get you the answers you need.
