Katherine Gehl is a business leader, author and speaker. Katherine was president and CEO of Gehl Foods, a $250 Million high-tech food manufacturing company in Wisconsin where she led a transformational growth strategy, receiving multiple awards, before selling the company in 2015— in part to dedicate more time to political reform.

Her career includes roles in the private and public sectors including at Oracle Corporation, Bernstein Investment Research and Management, Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Office at the City of Chicago, and Chicago Public Schools. In 2011, Katherine was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Over the past decade, Katherine has focused on the urgent need for non-partisan political innovation and reform on both state and national levels. In 2016, Katherine applied business competitiveness tools to the industry of politics for the first time, to uncover the root cause of the dysfunction—the failed political competition the parties have created. She invited Michael Porter to join her in this work.

Katherine is on the Board of Unite America and the CEO Fiscal Leadership Council for the Campaign to Fix the Debt. In 2018, Katherine co-founded Democracy Found, a Wisconsin-based initiative mobilizing a bi-partisan group of leaders to implement electoral innovations in Wisconsin.

Katherine graduated from the University of Notre Dame and holds an MA from Catholic University and an MBA from Kellogg.