Laura S. Orr, M.H.A.
Senior Partner & Global Board Advisory Leader, WittKieffer

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Laura Orr, M.H.A., is an accomplished executive and board advisor with two decades of healthcare operations, strategic planning, and board governance experience, combined with deep expertise in facilitation and executive coaching. As a Senior Partner in Leadership Advisory and WittKieffer’s Global Board Advisory Leader, Laura partners with clients to optimize board performance and leverage governance to drive strategy execution. Her areas of expertise include governance assessment, succession planning, board development plans, and one-on-one executive coaching. Laura also collaborates with colleagues in identifying and recruiting board members to align with organizational strategic priorities.

Prior to WittKieffer, Laura founded and grew her own firm, Forward Governance Consulting, providing support and guidance for boards of directors in healthcare, academic medicine, and related industries. Laura’s board consulting supported boards in evolving their structure, navigating leadership transitions, and aligning on strategy. Before that, she spent 10 years with Children’s Wisconsin health system, most recently as Chief Strategy and Governance Officer, and held leadership roles with Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center as well as Methodist Healthcare. Laura serves as an advisor for The Governance Institute and is a certified coach through the College of Executive Coaching, International Coaching Federation, and BoardSource.

Governance Advisory Solutions

High-Impact Board Accelerator: Creates a pragmatic roadmap to foster a high-impact board based on a comprehensive review of the board’s purpose, structure and processes, composition, and culture. Outputs include:

• Strength assessment and gap analysis
• Actionable recommendations to enhance board performance
• Alignment of board priorities with organizational strategy

Board Development:

• Board education: Provides interactive training sessions to enhance board effectiveness and share governance best practices.
• Board retreats: Partners with executive and board leadership to design and deliver strategic board retreats to foster alignment and effective governance.

Alignment Advising:

• Board chair/CEO alignment: Enhances the CEO-board chair partnership in guiding good governance.
• Targeted alignment support: Provides specific advice to foster partnership and decision-making in and between key board leaders, members, and/or committees.

M&A Implications: M&A creates additional complexity for boards when the organization needs them most. Laura strengthens boards during and after M&A through:

• Design: Advises on board composition and structure to align with the new organization.
• Transition: Enables alignment of legacy boards toward an integrated governing body and supports board leadership in navigating integration.