A B O U T | Speakupla

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About Speak Up La Inc

Speak Up La Inc. is a modern consulting and media platform founded on one core belief: growth begins when you decide to use your voice. What started as a personal commitment to step outside of comfort zones has evolved into a multifaceted business dedicated to empowering professionals, entrepreneurs, and organizations to build boldly and intentionally.

Speak Up La operates at the intersection of business strategy, supplier development, entrepreneurship, and personal development. Through consulting, program design, corporate advisory, digital products, and media content including podcasting and video storytelling, the brand supports individuals and companies in building sustainable systems, increasing opportunity, and expanding their impact.

At its core, Speak Up La is about alignment - aligning ambition with action, purpose with profit, and growth with wellness.

Lauren Hickman is the Founder and CEO of Speak Up La Inc. A business strategist, supplier development leader, entrepreneur, and media voice, she brings over 15 years of experience across corporate leadership and small business ownership.A proud HBCU graduate, Lauren earned her undergraduate degree from Fisk University and later received her MBA from Clark Atlanta University.

Her corporate career began in supply chain, where she managed multi-million-dollar categories and drove measurable cost savings for Fortune 500 organizations. In 2016, she transitioned into Supplier Diversity leadership and has since built, scaled, and advised large-scale supplier diversity programs valued at over $400M+ through strategic partnerships, ROI measurement, sourcing expansion, and Tier II implementation.

Today, Lauren serves in a regional leadership role within Corporate America while simultaneously building her entrepreneurial ventures. She specializes in supplier development strategy, sustainable program implementation, diverse supplier ecosystem development, and corporate-to-entrepreneur bridge building.

Through Speak Up La, she combines business intelligence with lived experience - empowering professionals to build careers, businesses, and brands with clarity, confidence, and intention.

Lauren believes you can thrive in corporate spaces, build businesses after hours, prioritize wellness, and still live expansively. Her work reflects that philosophy.

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