Lauren M. Diaz

Lauren is the President and Lead Consultant for The Startup Garage, a boutique consulting firm based in San Diego, specializes in providing consulting services to early-stage, high-growth Startups, including helping entrepreneurs develop Business Plans, Financial Projections and Investor Pitch Decks to attract investment. Lauren brings eight years of combined Finance, Marketing, and Accounting experience to the Startup Garage, leveraging this knowledge to help early stage, high-growth companies with the following: - Financial Modeling & Projections - Business Plan Research & Writing - Investor Pitch Deck Development - Financial Reporting & Analysis - Strategic Planning - Process Improvement - Performance Management & Metrics

Please see resume for full description of various roles held at CSX. -Director of Commercial Finance: Monthly forecast and period close, Quarterly Earnings reporting, development of annual and three-year revenue, volume, price, and capital plans. Pricing analytics integral to contract negotiations to maximize revenue and contribution. -Director of Consolidated Financial Reporting: Created standardized reporting across 10 divisions (commercial markets) to enable the consolidation into one centralized dashboard for consumption by our Executive Team. -Director of Operations Finance: Developed Expenditure Scorecard to increase transparency and accountability by compartmentalizing annual $300M budget into functional sub-budgets and creating KPIs to measure productivity. -Manager Strategic Marketing: Conducted market analytics of customer behavior and related competitive landscape to develop key growth strategies. -Manager of Operations Finance: Optimized car supply and $300M budget.

As part of Masters of Sports Management degree requirement. Developed process improvement strategies for various departments, including Corporate Sponsorship, Marketing, and Ticket Sales; Developed and implemented a sponsorship valuation model; Assisted in the creation of an automated sponsorship RFP system that allowed for a centralized business process effecting Marketing, Sales, Accounting and Inventory tracking; Developed a market based analytical tool to identify potential new sponsors.

Conducted extensive research and analysis of the tax implications of proposed business transactions and provided client recommendations; Assisted with the tax aspects of the restructuring of multinational companies; Developed advanced tax computation models that allowed for a more efficient business operation; Prepared and reviewed various international, federal, state and local tax returns; Responsible for the professional development, technical training and mentoring of over 10 new staff and interns; member of firm's recruiting team; Rated one of the top associate out of approximately 75 tax advisory associates firm-wide for annual performance review.