Kellie A. McElhaney

Dr. Kellie A. McElhaney is the Whitehead Faculty Fellow and the founding Faculty Director of the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.  She launched this center in 2003, which solidified corporate responsibility as one of the core competencies and competitive advantages of the Haas School.  The Center has received global critical acclaim with The Financial Times rating Haas #1 in the world for corporate responsibility.  Part of the Center’s value-adding differentiation is its $1.3M student-run socially responsible investment fund, which Kellie helped to launch and remains as adviser.

 

Her Corporate Responsibility work focuses in three areas:  (1) Analyzing and developing companies’ CSR strategy and its alignment with corporate strategy, business objectives, core competencies, and value creation; (2) Exploring the linkage between women, business leadership, and corporate sustainability (3) The business value and opportunities in branding, communication and CSR.  She has written a book entitled Just Good Business   The Strategic Guide to Aligning Corporate Responsibility and Brand (2010) on these focus areas, as well as given a TED Talk on the topic.

 

Kellie also focuses on the Value of Investing in Women in the global economy, in business, and in leadership.  Her work has also focused on women as corporate leaders and the firm’s improved financial, environmental and social performance.  She has developed new courses in this arena called The Business Case for Investing in Women, which she teaches in the undergraduate, the MBA, the executive MBA and the execution education arena inside and outside the U.S.  She has written various case studies of companies who are doing this, including the GSMA, Wal-Mart, E&Y, Gap, and Coca-Cola.  

 

Kellie keynotes for companies and organizations all over the world, and consults to Global 1000 companies in developing integrated CSR strategy and women’s investment strategy, bridging her academic focus with making an impact on the practitioner world.   Her client list includes HP, Gap, eBay, McDonalds, Levi, Wal-Mart, Target, Clorox, Ernst & Young, NVIDIA, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Nokia (Finland), Navigant, Volunteer Match, Ford Motor Company, PG&E, Driscolls Berries, Triage Consulting Group, Ulster Bank (Ireland), Kimberly-Clark, Frontline, Accenture, StatoilHydro (Norway), Yum! Brands, Chevron, ING, Energizer Holdings, Inc., Pandora Internet Radio, Aboitiz (Philippines), Outotec (Finland), Orrick, and Pillsbury Winthrop.

 

Kellie serves on the Board of Directors for Sierra Europe Offshore, LTD., the Sustainability Advisory Committee for the Dow Chemical Company and Outotec, and the Advisory Boards for Sedgwick’s Women’s Forum, Pacific Community Ventures, SustainAbility and Atalanta Capital.  She lives in the Oakland Hills in California and has two teen-aged daughters.  She enjoys cooking, yoga, good wine, running and has even tried surfing.  She earned her BA from the University of North Carolina, her MA from Ohio University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.  Prior to moving in to academia, Kellie worked in retail banking.