Kelly Kuhn

Meet Kelly

Kelly Kuhn is a Senior Advisor at McChrystal Group, where she provides counsel on the organization’s go-to-market and business development strategies, as well as achieving commercial growth through market expansion and engagement with clients and prospective clients.

Kelly also serves as Special Advisor to the Executive Leadership of CWT, a $25 billion digital travel management and meetings & events services company operating across six continents. In this role, Kelly provides advice, coaching and mentorship to key executives across the company. She also maintains key strategic client relationships and customer engagement and is the executive sponsor of CWT’s global Responsible Business efforts.

In addition to her advisory roles, Kelly holds a number of Non-Executive Director roles - at ISS A/S, a Danish publicly listed global workplace experience and facility management company, SSP Group Plc, a FTSE 250 multinational foodservice company, and WINiT by GBTA, a network focused on driving positive change for the career mobility of women in travel related industries.

Prior to assuming her current positions, Kelly was Executive Vice President & Chief Customer Officer for CWT, where she was responsible for customer management, global sales and customer engagement. Her remit included all CWT customer facing teams globally, including the Global Customer Group (GCG), Multinational Customer Group (MCG), regional sales, U.S. Military & Government, Energy Resource & Marine (ERM), Meetings & Events (M&E), and Sales Operations.

Before becoming Chief Customer Officer, Kelly was CWT’s President Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and Global Partners Network, based in London. Before that, she served for five successful years as President, CWT Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, Kelly was responsible for leading and empowering a team of more than 3,000 employees and successfully drove growth and improved service levels to customers in nine markets across this high-growth region. She was a member of the Executive Leadership Team in both roles.

Preceding her roles in EMEA and Asia Pacific, Kelly was the President of CWTSatoTravel, a U.S. Military & Government Markets division of CWT, leading the successful retention and growth of CWT’s worldwide U.S. Department of Defense and civilian government business. Kelly also served as executive sponsor for CWT North America’s diversity initiatives, key to the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility efforts. Prior to the merger between Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Navigant, Kelly held increasingly senior positions within Navigant.

Kelly is a member of Extraordinary Women on Boards, Women Corporate Directors, Women on Boards UK, Professional Boards Forum, and The Economic Club of Chicago. She has also been a member of The Executives’ Club of Chicago, and The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation Scarlet and Gold Advisory Board. Kelly was an independent non-executive director of LaSalle Hotel Properties from January 2003 through December 2011 and was a member of the company’s Compensation and Nominating and Governance committees.

Kelly graduated from Chicago’s Northwestern University in 1987 with a BA in music. She enjoys travel, the arts, and spending time with family.