Lara O. Hodgson

Lara co-founded Insomnia, LLC, an Atlanta-based firm specializing in investment, development and management of complex and innovative “world-changing” projects.   Current work is focused on finding solutions for and funding large scale infrastructure projects globally.  Lara is working on projects with a large infrastructure fund and is helping to launch an infrastructure development services company.  In addition, she is developing a white paper on the state of global infrastructure and the impending shift in the global balance of power.  She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences on innovative thinking that can reshape our infrastructure and our communities.  In 2007 Lara led an analysis of Atlanta’s MARTA system in which she  and her team identified large stretches of rail with no station access and developed a plan for infill stations that would increase ridership leveraging existing infrastructure and private capital.

Prior to founding Insomnia, Lara spent 5 years at Dewberry Capital Corporation, an Atlanta-based commercial real estate development and investment firm, where she served as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer.     While at Dewberry Capital, Lara developed a plan to improve traffic congestion and highway access in Midtown and presented the plan to GDOT.

Prior to joining Dewberry Capital, Lara was the Executive Vice President of Dunk, a performance footwear and apparel manufacturing/retail company built on the concept of mass customization and founded with Shaquille O’Neal & Mike Piazza. She built the operations, IT and sales & marketing groups and worked with the product development team in Los Angeles and the manufacturing team in Macao.

Prior to joining Dunk, Lara was the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Retail and Consumer Products Division of iXL (now Scient), an Internet strategy and consulting firm. She founded the division in 1999 and built it into one of the top performing groups within iXL.

Lara is an internationally recognized speaker & facilitator, leading seminars on creativity, diversity and innovation management.  Internationally, Lara has worked in Koriyama, Japan with the U.S. Defense Department’s EAGLE Japan Program and also served as the Ambassador to Lebanon for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lara received an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BS in Aerospace Engineering with highest honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She was featured in USA Today as one of the top 20 students in the US and was the ODK National Leader of the Year in 1993. Lara was a scholarship member of the varsity Track & Field team at Georgia Tech.

Lara has served on many public and private Boards including: Flag Bank, Central Atlanta Progress, Georgia Tech’s Alexander Tharpe Fund, Society of International Business Fellows and HERO for Children. Lara is a member of the Leadership Georgia Class of 2005, the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2004 and the Midtown Leadership Class of 2003. Lara is a full member of ULI and a member of the Society of International Business Fellows.   Lara teaches Real Estate Finance as an adjunct professor in Georgia Tech’s MBA Program.  Lara currently serves as an appointee of the Governor on the Transit Planning Board.