Growth opportunities
A new idea, partnership, audience, event or source of revenue that needs disciplined evaluation and a path to market.
Strategy | Growth | What’s Next
Helping organizations navigate change, accelerate growth and turn strategy into action.
Heard Strategic Advisors works with associations, nonprofits, healthcare organizations and companies across the meetings and business-events ecosystem. From membership and market research to organizational design, business events and strategic partnerships, HSA brings senior operating experience and practical recommendations leaders can implement.
21years in association leadership
$38Menterprise budget responsibility
130staff led across diverse functions
Bobby Heard, MBA
Principal
When to engage HSA
Fresh perspective for the opportunities and challenges ahead.
Strategy into action
A strategic plan that needs clearer priorities, accountable ownership and coordinated execution across the organization.
Organizational challenges
Questions about workload, role clarity, staff capabilities, decision authority, structure or future talent needs.
What comes next
A changing market, evolving member expectations or a new way to convene and engage that calls for a thoughtful view of the future.
Advisory capabilities
Ideas and strategy grounded in operating reality.
Every engagement combines executive judgment, disciplined analysis and practical recommendations that leaders can implement. HSA is especially energized by work that brings together strategy, audience insight, marketing, sales and live experiences.
Meetings and business events
Shape business-event strategy, sales meetings, incentive experiences, education and audience engagement around clear objectives and memorable value.
Membership, marketing and growth
Strengthen member acquisition, retention and engagement through sharper segmentation, value propositions and marketing strategies, while advancing nondues revenue, partnerships, sponsorship and business development.
Market research and stakeholder insights
Design and lead focus groups, executive interviews, member and customer research, market assessments and stakeholder-engagement processes that uncover unmet needs, test new ideas and translate insight into practical business decisions.
Strategy and board advisory
Clarify priorities, test assumptions and translate strategy into operating plans, measures and aligned leadership decisions.
Organizational design and talent
Assess functions, decision rights, workloads, capabilities and succession needs, then develop viable structures and transition roadmaps.
Operating and financial performance
Align budgets, staffing and priorities, establish meaningful KPIs and improve cross-functional execution.
AI, technology and strategic partnerships
Evaluate emerging technologies and structure strategic collaborations. Experience includes the business and operating dimensions of AI licensing agreements with healthcare technology companies, including content use, commercial terms, organizational value and implementation, in coordination with legal counsel as appropriate.
Enterprise procurement
Guide requirements, competitive bids, vendor evaluation, negotiation and implementation for publishing, technology and enterprise solutions.
Executive experience
Advice from an operator who has led the work.
Bobby Heard brings 21 years of leadership at the American College of Emergency Physicians, including more than seven years as Chief Operating Officer and later service as Chief Growth Officer. His portfolio included operations, membership, education, meetings and business events, finance, communications, marketing, technology, business development, corporate partnerships and scientific publishing. Early in his ACEP career, he led membership and marketing strategies that produced record growth. He later helped expand and reinvent the organization’s annual meeting and trade show.
Before joining ACEP, Bobby spent a decade at the national headquarters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, at the time one of the nation’s most widely recognized charitable organizations. He served as Chief Development Officer and Interim Executive Director, gaining substantial experience in national nonprofit leadership, development and organizational operations. He has also served eight years on the international boards of MPI and PCMA, including two years as finance vice chair.
He holds an MBA from Baylor University, with graduate study in organizational behavior, and has held the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential since 2006. He is a member of ASAE.
Selected outcomes
- 100+ millionrecords in a clinical data platform advanced under his leadership
- 143 groupsparticipating in a scaled membership and billing model
- Record membership growthdriven by new marketing, acquisition and engagement strategies
- PCMA Innovation Awardfor InnovatED, a hands-on, life-size mock emergency department
- Fastest 50Trade Show Executive Magazine recognition for one of the nation’s fastest-growing trade shows
- Multimillion-dollar agreementsacross publishing, technology and enterprise solutions
The HSA approach
Clear evidence. Clear choices. Actionable execution.
Understand
Listen to leaders, staff, members, customers and other stakeholders, examine relevant market, financial and operating information, and define the decisions the work must support.
Diagnose
Map capabilities, accountability, workflows and constraints, distinguishing documented findings from assumptions.
Decide
Present feasible options with benefits, risks, investments, dependencies and tradeoffs in decision-ready language.
Execute
Translate the selected direction into priorities, accountable owners, measures and a practical implementation roadmap.
Bobby personally leads every engagement, conducts the analysis, facilitates stakeholder conversations and presents the findings. When needed, HSA can remain involved to support implementation.
Begin a conversation
What’s next for your organization?
Whether you are pursuing an opportunity, working through a challenge or shaping a new direction, a focused conversation is a good place to begin.
Email Bobby Heard