Kym Lew Nelson is president and CEO of the KLEW Company, a procurement consulting and training firm she founded 16 years ago that focuses on strategic sourcing, procurement organization, optimization, and training, and minority-majority supplier linkages for clients around the globe. Her customers include Fortune 100 companies, midsize firms, colleges and universities, and minority-owned firms.

Prior to the KLEW Company, Ms. Nelson was with Procter and Gamble, where she spent over 18 years. More than 10 years of that time was spent in the area of purchasing and procurement after her eight years in brand management. Prior to HBS, she worked as a consultant at Bain & Co. She has managed global organizations, global suppliers, and global brands, including Crest, Pepto-Bismol, and Encaprin. She has extensive experience in developing and implementing both business and purchasing strategies, with successes in growing the business and significantly reducing costs. Ms. Nelson also has many years of experience working with and coaching minority companies to enhance their ability to become effective suppliers for Fortune 500 companies, both at KLEW and during her time at P&G.

Ms. Nelson received an AB in economics from Stanford University, where she developed and implemented the Stanford—Howard University exchange program, and was a member of the Stanford women's basketball team. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she served as president of AASU.

She has returned to HBS over the last few years to teach a negotiations class which uses two HBS cases she wrote with HBS senior lecturer Andy Wasynczuk, an HBS classmate, that are inspired by her work experiences.