Behind The Brand

Laura Varn has more than 25 years of leadership experience working within complex corporate structures, successfully dealing with high-level challenges in areas of Human Resources, Communications, Crisis Management, Leadership Development and Change Management.

Her comprehensive skill sets, developed from her executive leadership work in the energy, fuel and convenience, aviation, and transportation industries, enables her to see challenges clearly, and develop consensus around solutions that are creative, practical, and strategically on target.

Her superpower? Thinking strategically and implementing tactically.

Laura is action-oriented, practical and moves the needle on employee performance to enhance your business results.

Previously, Laura served as Vice President of People & Culture and Communications for Parkland USA, a national fuels and convenience store business. She was one of the first US executives, helping to grow the US division tenfold from 300 to 3,000 employees over the course of a few years. She built the US HR and communications culture, systems, and processes from scratch, led the HR and communications strategy and implementation for all 20 US acquisitions, provided strategic counsel to executives, built a strong and competent team; and standardized dozens of HR processes nationally.

Prior to that, Laura worked as a Vice President for Corporate Communications and Vice President for Human Resources for South Carolina’s state-owned utility, Santee Cooper, for 13 years, and she’s worked in management positions at several Fortune 500 companies, including Delta Air Lines and Southern Company. She led Atlanta’s public transit system’s communications efforts during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games.

She has a reputation for speaking up, thinking differently, and delivering results. As a strategic leader and hard worker, she leads by her values in a timely and professional manner. She is a builder and developer of talent.

Laura is a widely-respected community leader who believes in making a difference. She is a past Chair of the Board of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, and served in numerous other leadership volunteer positions at the Chamber for ten years. She also served on the boards of Charleston Regional Development Association, Tri-County Cradle to Career and Trident Literacy Association. She is a Liberty Fellow, a Liberty Fellow mentor and a College of Charleston Schottland Scholar mentor. Laura is a graduate of Leadership South Carolina, Leadership Berkeley and Diversity Leadership Institute, and has been named a “Forty Under 40” winner by the Charleston Regional Business Journal.

She earned her MBA from The Citadel and a Broadcast Journalism degree from Ohio University. She and her husband Scott have two children. Laura is addicted to spin classes, dark chocolate and college football. She is proud to have attended 24 Jimmy Buffett concerts, walks their dog daily and reads as many books as possible.

“Laura Varn is someone we all profoundly respect at Sprockets for being a remarkable thought leader who truly cares about the employees at her organization. It’s an honor for our company to partner with them, and it was a joy to watch this episode of #TheHourlyPodcast with Laura and our CEO, AJ Richichi.”