DT | CEO Series - Wendy Guillies, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Wendy Guillies is the president and chief executive officer of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.  Established in Kansas City, Missouri, by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist, Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States with an asset base of more than $2 billion.

In her role, Guillies works in close partnership with the Foundation’s Board of Trustees and senior leadership team to realize Ewing Kauffman’s vision of fostering a society of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens in their communities.  In service of this vision, the Foundation focuses grantmaking and operations on two areas – education and entrepreneurship – that Ewing Kauffman saw as two ends of a continuum.

Guillies joined the Foundation in April 2000, and has played an instrumental role in not only leading the Foundation team, but also building the Foundation’s local, national and global reputation as a thought leader and innovator in its fields. Among her accomplishments, she developed, launched and has overseen the growth of one of the Kauffman Foundation’s most far-reaching and highly-leveraged initiatives in Global Entrepreneurship Week, now in its eighth year and involving a big effort in Kansas City and in communities in 150 countries around the world.

Guillies serves on the board of Kauffman FastTrac, the Foundation's longest-running entrepreneurship education program. She was appointed in 2014 to the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce's Board of Directors and Executive Committee. She also was selected for the 2014 class of Women Executives in Kansas City by Ingram's magazine. She is an alumnus of Kansas City Centurions, a civic leadership program of the Chamber of Commerce.

Guillies is a native of Kansas City, Kansas, and she and her husband are the proud parents of two daughters.  She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska.