Wendy Guillies

Executive and Board Member

Kansas City Area

Wendy Guillies is a seasoned C-Suite/Senior Executive with deep experience in strategy development and execution, talent management and culture, marketing/communications and board service. She founded her fractional solutions firm, Guillies On Point, in 2024 to help organizations achieve clarity, focus and results.

From March of 2023 to February of 2024, Guillies was interim CEO of Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, MO. During her tenure, she provided stability to the team and organization and played an instrumental role in a new outsourced solution for the museum cafe, widespread staff compensation improvements, and funding for a comprehensive 30th anniversary program. She also served on the board search committee to hire a permanent executive director. 

Guillies spent the bulk of her career at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, from where she retired in 2022 as president and CEO. The Kauffman Foundation is a private $3B foundation focused on a prepared, workforce and economic mobility through education, real world learning and entrepreneurship. She oversaw the 115-person organization through a period of significant growth in scope and complexity, leading a seasoned team of 10 senior leaders with responsibility for all aspects of program and administrative operations.

Highlights during her tenure included:

  • Development and implementation of a comprehensive strategic plan, including establishing Foundation-wide priorities and success measures, and substantial improvements to program direction, administrative operations, technology and community/partner relations.

  • Incubation and launch of four independent 501c3 startup organizations representing 100s of millions of dollars of investment, including KC Scholars, one of the most successful workforce development and college completion programs in the country serving tens of thousands of low-income, first generation and students of color.

  • New work streams created to build ‘real world learning’ experiences at scale in high schools, harness the power of entrepreneurship in community economic development and national policy, and open more and different pathways to capital for entrepreneurs, especially those from underserved communities. 

  • Established new evaluation and learning department, repositioned “HR” to “Talent and Culture” and embedded diversity, equity and inclusion throughout organization.

—

Prior to becoming CEO, she served for 14 years in various marketing and communications capacities at the Kauffman Foundation, including Vice President of Communications and a member of the Senior Leadership Team. She played an instrumental role in the launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week, now an independent 501c3 based in Washington DC under the brand of Global Entrepreneurship Network that engages tens of millions of participants from more than 170 countries. Before joining Kauffman, she held management roles in communications, marketing, and public relations in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, including at a fast-growth healthcare tech company named to the Inc 500 for three consecutive years. 

A seasoned board member, Guillies serves on the boards of Folience, a for profit ESOP holding company based in Iowa that was named the national Employee Owned Company of the Year in 2022; the Center for American Entrepreneurship in Washington, DC; Saint Luke's South Hospital in Overland Park, KS; Avila University in Kansas City, MO; and on the Advisory Board for Enterprise Bank & Trust's KC Region. Previously she served on the Boards of Enterprise Bank & Trust in St. Louis and the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. She was a member of The Generosity Commission in Washington DC from its inception in 2021 until her retirement from the Kauffman Foundation in 2022.

In 2022, Guillies was honored to be selected as a "Master" representing the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as part of UNL's prestigious Masters Week Program.

In 2017 she was selected to join the Women Who Mean Business program through the Kansas City Business Journal. The Business Journal also named her to the Power 100 list for multiple years. 

 Guillies gave a TedTalk in Fargo in 2017 titled, The Middle is the New Edge. The message centered on her belief in the power and passion of people everywhere, especially in the middle of the country.

Thought Leadership Pieces

  • The Hill, May 2022, A Practical Business Plan for the Fair Economy America Needs

  • Inc., Dec. 2021, New Businesses are the Key to Build Back Better 

  • Kansas City Star, Nov. 2019, Supporting American entrepreneurship is a bipartisan goal

  • Twin Cities Pioneer Press, June 2018, Remarkable Potential for New Business Growth and Barriers to Clear 

  • Entrepreneur Magazine, Nov. 2017, What Global Entrepreneurship Week Teaches us About the World 

  • Forbes, Feb. 2017, The Megatrends of Entrepreneurship are Key to Job Growth 

  • TedxTalk Fargo, ND, July 2017, The Middle is the New Edge