Kittie W. Watson is President and founder of Innolect Inc., a global leadership and organization development firm that prepares executives and their teams to succeed in high-performance, high-integrity workplaces. With over twenty-five years of strategic change management experience, Kittie has been a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 C-suite officers seeking to accelerate positive business results today and create legacies of excellence for the future. Under her leadership Innolect has developed a community of credentialed experts and executive coaches who advise, design and facilitate strategies that rewire an organization and drive outstanding leadership at each stage of executive advancement. Innolect prepares its clients to compete more effectively in diverse marketplaces by building the skilled leaders and collaborative teams that drive productivity, inclusion, enterprise agility and engagement. Towards this end, Kittie brings a deep appreciation for the challenges faced by executives in high-stakes settings and works exceptionally well with mission-critical business needs. Focused on creating more inclusive cultures, she quickly sizes up the crux of difficult situations and provides leaders with powerful solutions that pay off for themselves and their stakeholders. Kittie has worked with the top leadership teams of Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, government agencies and non-profit organizations. She has extensive experience in orchestrating assessment and change initiatives in organizations such as Bayer, Zoetis, Carolinas Healthcare, Entergy, Compass, Cricket, Exxon-Mobil, Federal Reserve Board, Pfizer, Equifax, US Army, Monsanto, Red Cross, Prisma Healthcare, SonyBMG, Credit Human, Southern Company, Genentech and Wells Fargo. An internationally known communication and listening expert, she served as the youngest Department Chair at Tulane University. Author of 16 books, Kittie is listed as one of the top 25 most prolific women writers in communication. Her assessment tools are used globally to enhance individual and team effectiveness. Her co-authored book, Listen Up!, has been published in eight languages. She has been featured on ABC’s 20/20, Money, Glamour and Home Office Computing. Her research has been published in Harvard Business Review, People + Strategy, American Medical News, SHRM, Chief Learning Officer and Journal of Christian Nursing to name a few. Kittie is a nationally recognized business leader. Recent awards include being named a one of the 2020 “Eight that Innovate” by the Diversity Alliance for Science, 2019 WBEs Who Rock by DBE Magazine, 2017 Top 100 woman-owned businesses, 2016 Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Babson College scholar and as a 2015 Business Star by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). Also recognized with Diversity Supplier Award for Innolect’s persistence, innovation and quality. She serves on the WaterStone Foundation and Habitat for Humanity boards as well as the Leadership Forum with WBENC. She co-founded The Institute for Intrapersonal Processes (ISIP), a 501c3 nonprofit that promotes research and development for under-represented groups and underprivileged individuals. An Honorary Women Build Chair for Habitat for Humanity, Kittie is committed to “Pay it Forward.” She is an advocate for racial and social justice issues worldwide. She has worked with Duke University to offer more extensive pain-management options for women with breast cancer as well as with “Mothering across Continents” in South Africa, Women for Women and The Trampled Rose NGO organizations in Ethiopia.