Kelly Simmons

Kelly joined the Center for Creative Leadership in EMEA in 2008, and the San Diego faculty in 2015. She began her working career as a Manufacturing and Supply Chain engineer at Hewlett Packard Company in San Diego, USA and Guadalajara, Mexico where she led projects based in Asia and South America.

Kelly is a specialist in helping teams andindividuals think about their organizations like systems and build the skills to lead more effectively in their environments. She is an energetic and insightful communicator who can connect broad technical and sector knowledge with critical client needs – areas such as designing and delivering culture change to support the organization’s goals and mandates and designing high touch leadership development programs that feel like they are a natural part of an organization’s learning and development strategy. She is currently focused on mobile learning and women’s leadership for women in STEM. She has led the set up and operation of the consulting and training departments of two start-up boutique consulting firms in Barcelona, Spain. She has been on the faculty at EADA business school in Barcelona, Spain for 10 years, and has designed and delivered leadership and organizational development programs across Europe and the United States. She has supported senior leadership teams with facilitation, design and consultation as they define and realize the deep organizational and culture changes they have wanted to make.

Experience

Kelly Simmons joined the Center for Creative Leadership as an Associate Coach in EMEA in 2008, and as Senior Faculty in San Diego, California in 2015. She began her working career as a Manufacturing and Supply Chain engineer at Hewlett Packard Company in San Diego, USA and Guadalajara, Mexico, where she led projects based in Asia and South America. Kelly specializes in applying systems thinking to organizational, team, and individual leadership development. She’s merged a solution-focused approach with learning and development, culture change, coaching, and facilitation to engage organizations to meet the wide range of situations they face. Prior to joining CCL, Kelly led the set up and operation of the consulting and training departments of 2 start-up boutique consulting firms in Barcelona, Spain. She has been on the faculty at EADA Business School in Barcelona for 10 years, and has designed and delivered leadership and organizational development programs across Europe and the United States. She has worked within the tech/high tech/biotech, finance, manufacturing, consumer products, healthcare, energy, and alternative energy sectors. Her specialization in organizational systems shows up in the chapter she co-authored “Seeing Teams as Human Systems” in the book Do You Work or Collaborate? (“¿Trabajas o colaboras?) by Profit Editorial. She’s spoken twice about Systems Thinking in Leadership at the IEEE International Women’s Leadership Conference in the Silicon Valley (2014 & 2015).

Current Role

Kelly is a Senior Faculty member at CCL’s San Diego campus. She’s been lead faculty on the design of custom micro-learning journeys as well as designing and launching CCL’s Advancing Technical Women program. She continues to lead the design and delivery of custom leadership development solutions for CCL’s global corporate clients as well as facilitate open enrollment programs such as Leading for Organizational Impact.

Educational Background

Kelly has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California and a Master’s degree in Organizational and Executive Development from EADA Business School in Spain. She has been certified as a team and executive coach. An avid on-the-job global learner, she’s learned and worked her way around the world. Her working languages are English, Spanish, French, and Catalan.

Professional Affiliations

She is a currently on the board of the Solana Beach Schools Foundation. In addition to supporting local needs to raise funds for STEM education in public schools, she was previously a founding board member of Museu dels Infants de Catalunya, a non-profit organization with the mission to promote the creation of a children’s museum in Catalunya.