Jennifer Priem, Transportation Business Development Manager

On our latest episode of the WGI Unleashed podcast, we head back to Florida to chat with Jennifer Priem, Transportation Business Development Manager, located in our Tampa, FL office. Jennifer joined WGI over 3 years ago and has quickly established herself as a changemaker, helping to create more streamlined processes and often taking on additional projects outside her role's general scope.

We learned Jennifer was born in "The Thumb" region of Michigan, where she grew up along Saginaw Bay with her twin brother. She spent her early years outdoors exploring and rescuing any and all animals she encountered. Jennifer discussed her nomadic adolescence and how her father got a job working for a prominent construction company in Philadelphia, which finally allowed her family to settle down in New Jersey. Her first job involved working in public relations for a large environmental company, but when commissioned by her sister to write a listing ad for her condo, Jennifer promptly fled the cold northeast weather for the sunny beaches of Florida!

We intently listened to Jennifer as she walked us through her unique career path prior to joining WGI, which consisted of hotel hopping around the UK as a trainer for a large corporate hotel chain, leading ghost tours at the historic (and haunted) Belleview-Biltmore Hotel, and working for a dental lab making teeth.

We discovered she was introduced to WGI by a previous co-worker who had just joined the firm, and how after reading a Business Development Proposal Manager job description that she felt had been written "just for her," she knew this was exactly the place she needed to be.

Fast forward 3+ years and Jennifer is now the Business Development Manager of our Transportation Division, where she jokingly compared her job to "herding cats." This really means that Jennifer provides key assistance in facilitating and managing the pursuit process, overseeing the annual strategy meetings that work to identify more fruitful and diverse pursuits, curating and leading the WGI client experience, and being a leader of the transition team tasked with governing WGI's recent project management software rollout.

Aside from her illustrious career, Jennifer has a passion for fostering kittens and a deep love for travel and exploring new destinations. She is not a fan of traditional exercise and prefers to kickbox, play pickleball, and kayak. She even told us the story of how she met her husband and how their relationship culminated in a Princess Bride-themed wedding, which was fittingly held at an animal sanctuary. Fun fact, her husband is actually a published author!

Go check out Jennifer's episode now to learn what her middle name is and how it uniquely ties into her last name, how she really feels about Tom Brady, and who (or should we say what) walked her down the aisle at her wedding.