Kym Lew Nelson

Kym Lew Nelson joined the NOM unit of the Harvard Business School as a Visiting Lecturer in January of 2020. In July of 2020, she became a Senior Lecturer in the Negotiations unit. Prior to joining the faculty, Kym was a guest lecturer in the Negotiations class at HBS for over four years.  She has spent the last year writing new cases with the focus on diverse protagonists.

Twenty years ago, Ms. Nelson started The KLEW Company, a consulting and training firm focusing on strategic sourcing, procurement optimization, negotiations, and supplier diversity.  Her customers include Fortune 100 companies, midsize firms, colleges/universities, public entities, as well as minority-owned firms.

Prior to the formation of KLEW, Ms. Nelson was with the Procter and Gamble Company where she spent over 18 years.  More than ten of those years were spent in the area of Procurement/Purchasing where she was involved in a variety of negotiations and contract development around the globe.  She was the first African American women to be promoted to Director/VP in the Procurement organization. She also spent eight years in Brand Management/Marketing in the Health Care business unit. In addition, she spent two years at Bain and Company working on corporate strategy development.

Ms. Nelson has managed global organizations, global suppliers and global Brands. She has extensive experience in developing and implementing both business and procurement strategies with successes in growing the business and significantly reducing costs. Additionally she has many years of experience working with minority companies to enhance their ability to become effective suppliers.

Kym received her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1983.  While at HBS, she was president of the African American Student organization (AASU). Her undergraduate degree is from Stanford University where she majored in Economics.  While at Stanford she developed and implemented the Stanford - Howard University student exchange program and attended Howard University for a semester.  She was also a member of the Stanford women’s basketball team. Ms. Nelson has two daughters.  One is the “Black Forager,” a well known social media star and the other is also in the film industry.  She currently commutes between Cincinnati and Boston.

Additional cases (in progress)

Kym Lew Nelson, Kris Ferreira, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Sarah Mehta. “Diversifying P&G’s Supplier Base (B)” Harvard Business School Supplement 622-029, 2021. 

Kym Lew Nelson, James K. Sebenius and Alex Green. “Career at a Crossroad.” Harvard Business School Case, 2021.