Q&A with Marie Lehmann, ValidMind’s New Head of Partnerships
ValidMind is excited to welcome its new Head of Partnerships, Marie Lehmann. We caught up with her to talk about how she first got into a career in partnerships and the path that led her to ValidMind.
Q: You’ve led partnerships and commercial strategy at a global scale. What first drew you to working in the partnership position?
I think it was a natural progression from my background in sales which equipped me with the skills that I think are important for building relationships and negotiating with partners. Throughout my career, I’ve worked across new business and account management, which entails relationship building, negotiation and strategic skills that are required for successful partnership management. I felt that this role would enable me to make a real difference and add value. That’s also the reason why I joined ValidMind. I saw an opportunity to contribute to the company’s growth by applying that experience and expertise.
Q: Partnerships can mean a lot of different things depending on the organization. How do you define a great strategic partnership?
A great strategic channel partnership is a mutually beneficial relationship where two companies align their strengths, such as expertise, market access, or technology, to create more value together than they could alone. It’s built on clear goals, shared incentives, strong communication, and a commitment to driving measurable growth for both sides.
The right partner should have a strong presence in your target markets, a client base aligned with your strategic objectives, and the scale to ensure mutual benefit. It’s also important to recognize that partnerships come in many forms – implementation, product/technology, and channel partnerships, among others – and each requires a tailored strategic approach.
Throughout my career, I’ve led global partnerships across all of these types, and one thing remains true: how a partnership is managed ultimately determines the value it delivers. You can partner with any company and still make little progress without good governance. And while poor partner governance may not cause a business to fail, it can certainly prevent it from growing.
Q: Looking back on your previous roles, what lessons have you learned when it comes to building and maintaining long-term partnerships?
For me, it starts with good governance – having clear processes in place and maintaining regular touchpoints with the partner. That includes consistent meetings such as annual reviews, quarterly business reviews to assess mutually agreed-upon KPIs, and monthly – or ideally weekly – check-ins to monitor the sales pipeline and ensure everything is running smoothly.
A partnership doesn’t end when the agreement is signed; that’s just the beginning. It’s crucial to train the partner’s sales team on the value proposition and objection handling, provide all necessary marketing collateral, and run joint activities that support ongoing engagement. Relationship management is equally important, both internally and externally.
The key is getting your sales teams and the partner’s sales team genuinely interested in and invested in the partnership. If they don’t believe in it or understand its value, they won’t put in the effort to sell. Sales incentives can also help drive engagement. Being collaborative, analytical, and organized are all essential qualities for building long-term, successful partnerships.
Q: As you step into the Head of Partnerships role, what opportunities are you most excited to explore?
We are a growing organization, and there are many alliances to explore, each representing an opportunity to expand our reach and impact. That said, we need to be intentional and focus on partnerships that will generate the most revenue, strengthen regional coverage, and align with our strategic goals.
My current priorities include refining our materials and processes (and identifying any gaps), defining our global partnerships strategy, and ensuring we’re set up to close and manage partnerships efficiently. ValidMind is purpose-built for AI and Model Risk Management teams to test, document, validate, and govern Generative AI, AI, and statistical models with speed and confidence.
Because of this, I’m especially excited about pursuing partnerships with consulting firms in this space, as well as with key technology vendors. There’s a lot of potential ahead, and I’m looking forward to building a partnership ecosystem that truly accelerates our growth.
Q: When you learned about ValidMind, what part of the company or platform caught your attention and felt aligned with your own values or experiences?
I was intrigued by many aspects of the platform, but what truly caught my attention was what it enables. The fact that it brings trust, transparency, and efficiency to the MRM process and helps accelerate AI adoption for banks, aligns with what I’ve always been passionate about. This is exactly why I’ve stayed in this field: when you work with financial SaaS solutions and data, the ultimate goal is to foster trust, transparency, and efficiency within the financial services industry, and that is what ValidMind is doing.
Q: What do you enjoy doing in your downtime?
In the winter, I love snowboarding in the Alps. I’m also a big walker. I enjoy hiking, and with three boys and two lovely dachshunds, I definitely stay active! There are great parks in my area, and my husband and I are religious about going for a walk on the weekends. I try to fit in a few walks during the week too, though it’s easy to get up, open my laptop, and dive straight into work. I also enjoy reading, socializing, and traveling. I’ve had the chance to travel around the world professionally, but I’d love to revisit many of those places, this time purely as a tourist.
