Shelly is the Managing Partner at Laguna Ventures LLC an incubator and management consulting firm. LVL’s primary portfolio is focused on entrepreneurs in Health, Entertainment, Environment, Transportation and Technology.
Ms. Bennecke had 16 years of leadership responsibility in the transportation division at Cox Enterprises, in one role she managed the Initiative Review Board where all company initiatives were evaluated from a capital and operating perspective. While at Cox, the $22b privately held media, auto and business giant, she had a governance responsibility in strategy to pitch and launch new global innovations and enterprises along with facilitating growth for their popular consumer brands like; Cox Cable, The Travel Channel, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Austin American-Statesman, Dayton Daily News, WSB-TV Atlanta (ABC), KTVU San Francisco (FOX), KIRO Seattle (CBS), WPXI Pittsburgh (NBC), Kelley Blue Book, AutoTrader.com, and Valpak. She helped conceptualize, develop and implement strategic alliances with numerous companies like Hearst Corporation, WSJ, Facebook, Instagram, Yahoo, Google, eBay, MSN, Santander Consumer Bank AG and more. Across Cox divisions, she also was a Health and Wellness Ambassador and was appointed to lead the companies Energy Team within their Go Green initiative to reduce the companies carbon impact leading toward Clean-Tech investments.
Shelly has spoken domestically and internationally. At Oxford University Said Business School, she delivered a case study on entrepreneurship and a presentation related to global politics with an emphasis on the American geopolitical sphere. She spoke to a delegation of world leaders on the future of transportation in China at a United Nations, PRC World Congress conference focused on the environment and she was asked by The Country of Finland Teachers Commission to speak on the topics of women in leadership and international business. In addition to the above, Shelly was a Junior Partner at Independent Film Channel, her contributions at IFC funded budding directors, writers, producers and their Independent Spirit Awards.
Currently Shelly serves as a CERT team member in her community under the United States Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency division (FEMA) and is on The City of Laguna Beach Environmental Sustainability and Emergency Disaster Committees. As President of the Board for non-profit ImaginationNow she assists in the vision of bringing imagination back into our schools and life spectrums. She was part of Harvard Business School’s inaugural Strategy and Execution HBX Live program along with being enrolled in Stanford University's Entrepreneurs and Innovation and Genetic programs. She is an alumna of Oxford University’s Said Business School.
