Ellen Connelly Taaffe

Ellen Connelly Taaffe is a clinical associate professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where she teaches Personal Leadership Insights and is the director of Women’s Leadership Programming. She designs and delivers the Kellogg Women’s Leadership Seminar series, the signature program for female students across Kellogg’s full-time, evening/weekend, and Executive MBA programs.

Outside of Kellogg, Taaffe serves as an independent board director for two public and one private company boards, where she is a Lead Director, Vice Chair, and chairs one Nominating and Governance Committees and one Compensation Committee and serves as a member of two audit committees. She also runs a leadership advisory consulting, speaking, and coaching business and is a TEDx speaker. She shares her insights on leadership, careers, and advancing women and inclusion through her writing and speaking in media like Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Business Insider, Washington Post, Bloomberg, and Kellogg Insight.

Prior to her academic, governance, and coaching career, Taaffe spent 25 years with Fortune 500 companies holding the top brand management post at divisions of PepsiCo, Royal Caribbean, and Whirlpool Corporation. She built world-class brands, led multi-billion-dollar portfolios with P&L responsibility, launched new businesses, led turnarounds, and merged businesses and cultures post-acquisition. In her 2023 book, The Mirrored Door: Break Through the Hidden Barrier that Locks Successful Women in Place, she uses her vast experience to help women understand and navigate through internal and external obstacles to create the future career they desire.