Catalyst Staff
image of Kelly (Kleinkort)  Montes

Kelly (Kleinkort) Montes

Executive Director, US Supporter Success

With two decades of leadership experience, Kelly has worked with Fortune 500 companies, leading CEOs, foreign governments, and institutions of higher education to develop inclusive workplaces, global competency, and conduct research for connection across peoples and cultures. The underpinning of her two decades of work has been connecting across differences, whether via her time and work in Inner Mongolia, China, while hosting heads of state for diplomatic dialogue, or training executives on how to be inclusive leaders.

Kelly currently oversees the largest segment for the Catalyst portfolio—the US—and works alongside a cadre of Relationship Managers to deliver value via thought partnership and actionable research to develop inclusive leaders and workplaces within our Supporter organizations. Kelly frequently speaks on inclusive leadership, empathy, ERG best practices, sponsorship, and allyship; during her time with Catalyst, she has delivered over 80 speaking engagements.

Kelly is a Fulbright Scholar as well as a Young Sinologist, a fellowship awarded by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She is a champion for fostering inclusion and cultural understanding and believes both the challenges and solutions for the 21st century require courageous conversations, curiosity and intentional bridge building across cultures and peoples.