Ellen Kullman

“If you don’t water it, it’s going to die.” ~Ellen Kullman

At age 57, Ellen Kullman is one of the most powerful women in business. Chairman and CEO of DuPont, a more than two-centuries old chemical company, she’s expected to push the company toward the nutrition and agriculture sectors in her time there. Kullman is DuPont’s first-ever female CEO and has been aggressive in her pursuit of better food security and sustainability.

With a specialty in innovation, Kullman has greatly increased DuPont’s connection with customers, partnerships, collaborative projects, and solutions to local problems. It’s no surprise that she’s an effective leader; she has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tufts and a master’s degree in management from Northwestern University. Her resume includes working for General Electric and being a member of several councils, committees, and forums dedicated to global leadership and engineering.

Moving DuPont from simply being a chemical company to being a market-driven global science company is Kullman’s ultimate goal. She looks at changes in the global economy as challenges for the company to meet and chances to grow immensely.

Kullman’s career at DuPont began in 1988, when she was hired on as a marketing manager. From there, she worked her way up to business director, vice president and general manager of several businesses within DuPont. After acquiring leadership of more businesses in the company, Kullman was eventually named executive vice president for three business platforms in 2006. Three years later, she was elected CEO.

Outside of DuPont, Ellen Kullman is working to improve education at many levels. She’s a member of Change the Equation (CTEq), which is working to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning for K-12 students. She also sits on the board for her alma mater, Tufts University and Tufts University School of Engineering.