Lisa Higgins

President and CEO Lisa Higgins has led many departments and strategic initiatives in her 30-year career with APQC. Beyond ensuring the operations and financial success of the organization, Lisa is the chief caretaker and champion for APQC’s philosophy, values, and culture. She safeguards and embodies the Grayson GuaranteeSM so that the members APQC serves and the employees who join know of, live with, and carry on the legacy of APQC’s storied founder Jack Grayson.

Prior to being elevated to CEO in 2018 (the third CEO in APQC's 40 year history), she was named as President in 2012, COO in 2000, and a member of APQC's executive team since 1995. She joined the organization in 1993. 

Lisa headed APQC's Benchmarking Services and Custom Solutions Group, which used APQC methodologies to provide support and apply proven practices to solve clients’ business problems. She oversaw the delivery of more than 500 benchmarking and best-practice research studies for clients throughout the world.

Lisa led APQC’s work in the formation of the Open Standards Benchmarking CollaborativeSM (currently Open Standards Benchmarking), which established an open universal standard for processes—APQC's Process Classification Framework (PCF)®—and performance metrics used to evaluate and understand those processes. With more than 9,000 participants, APQC's Open Standards Benchmarking database is the world’s largest and most comprehensive database of performance analytics, benchmarks, and best practices.

Lisa’s primary focus throughout her career at APQC has been to assist organizations in building capabilities to support their objectives, including the integration of benchmarking and other continuous improvement tools. She has led numerous benchmarking and best-practice research projects in the area of shared services. She has also worked extensively with clients seeking to implement or improve existing shared service business structures and operating models.

Lisa has advised on the alignment of organizational objectives using measurement and process improvement strategies throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. She has authored several APQC publications and articles including APQC’s By the Numbers series that includes topics such as accounting, finance, human resources, logistics, and procurement. She has also contributed to APQC’s Passport series that includes information on benchmarking, leadership, corporate training, and knowledge management.

Lisa is proud to have been a board member of the Epilepsy Foundation of Southeast Texas since 2004 and board president for two consecutive terms 2009–2010. In addition she serves on the foundation’s national strategic planning committee.