About Us
Geisse Collaborative’s managing partners, Nancy Geisse and Joanne Halliday, have over 25 years’ experience as executives and board members with nonprofit and for-profit companies. They have 11 years’ experience in strategic consulting, including with McKinsey and Company. They have extensive experience working with diverse teams at all levels of the organization. Nancy is an expert in strategic planning, business and strategic partnership development, and new business planning. Joanne is an expert in new business implementation, program and process design, and project management. Geisse Collaborative believes in the power of data to drive strategic decisions and continuous improvement. In addition, we are skilled in financial planning, budget management, and grant writing.
Nancy Geisse
Nancy has 14 years’ experience as a C-level executive (CEO, CSO & COO) for nonprofit and for-profit companies. In addition, she has 11 years’ consulting experience, both with McKinsey & Company and Geisse Collaborative.
Nancy also co-founded three companies, including a mail service biopharmacy, clean energy innovator, and private equity firm. As an entrepreneur, she has led executive teams through the start-up process from opportunity analysis and funding to strategic planning, customer engagement, and service design and launch.
In 2018, Nancy brought her skills to the nonprofit industry to help organizations build sustainable revenue generating services to reduce their dependency upon grants and donations. As COO of one of the largest nonprofits serving older adults in the San Francisco Bay Area, she transformed the organization’s struggling transportation operations into a highly profitable division, increasing revenue by over 250% and earned income by over 400%. She secured and operationalized their first healthcare contracts, including with the largest Medi-Cal managed care plan in Northern California and a new Bay Area PACE program. She also expanded the organization into Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo, and Stanislaus counties. Since 2023, she has been working with another Bay Area organization pursuing healthcare opportunities. She secured contracts with two managed care plans and a large veterans affairs healthcare system.
Nancy strongly believes in the importance of nonprofits, counties, providers, and other organizations collaborating and innovating to best serve their communities. In this pursuit, she was co-founder of a disability collaborative, co-CEO of an aging and disability institute, vice-chair of an aging institute, and a member of several boards, including a county IHSS public authority.
She has an MBA from Stanford University and BS in Mathematical Sciences also from Stanford University.
Joanne Halliday
Joanne has over 25 years’ experience of strategy development and operations leadership in for-profit and nonprofit organizations. A versatile senior leader experienced in strategy design & execution, project & program management, business analysis, financial management, IT application delivery, operations management, and workforce development for major global companies, including Gap Inc. and Salesforce.
Joanne has held several technology leadership roles, in London and San Francisco, leading business and technology teams to understand business requirements, implement technology solutions, maximize adoption of new technology, and support business-critical operations. Joanne has created strategy and implementation plans to scale technology operations to meet the demands of growing businesses and managed several large-scale projects to implement and upgrade technology.
In 2019, Joanne began applying transferable business skills towards the success of community-based organizations in Northern California. As a consultant working with nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area, Joanne has led strategy and execution for the growth of core programs, designed and developed new programs, created multi-year business plans, led the post-pandemic return to ‘normal’ operations, and secured several significant grants and county contracts.
Most recently Joanne has managed the launch of CalAIM Enhanced Care Management and Community Supports for an organization on the path to implement healthcare services to fuel the organization’s long-term growth, including project management, process design and implementation, data sharing, training development and delivery, financial planning, and grant writing.
Joanne has a BA in Marketing & Human Resource Management and a Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology from the University of Strathclyde and University of the West of Scotland, respectively.