Kevin Kelly '76 Communication
Team Leader, Internal Communications, Engelhard Corporation
Kevin Kelly is Internal Communications Team Leader for Engelhard Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Iselin, N.J.
Engelhard is a surface and materials science company that develops technologies to improve customers’ products and processes. The company is a world-leading provider of technologies for a wide range of environmental, process, appearance and performance applications. Among other things, the company developed and commercialized the three-way catalytic converter, which removes 97% of the pollutants emitted by today’s gasoline-powered vehicles.
As Internal Communications Team Leader, Kelly is responsible for developing communication policy, processes and programs targeted at Engelhard’s 6,400 employees, who are scattered among some 50 major facilities in 28 countries. He also counsels and provides support to members of the company’s Strategic Leadership Team.
In recent years, Kelly has developed and implemented an Engelhard ethics awareness program, revitalized the company’s employee recognition program, established a global communicator’s network, and launched two new employee communications vehicles–all in support of Engelhard’s ongoing change management and branding initiatives.
Prior to joining Engelhard in 1996, Kelly held a series of public relations, communications and public affairs positions during a 20-year career in the health care industry with Warner-Lambert Co., Pfizer Inc. and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc.
Kelly has devoted a great deal of time to supporting Rutgers, from which he graduated in 1976. From 1987 to 1998 he taught Communication and Public Relations courses (Message Design, Principles of PR and others) at SC&I. Over the years, he hired many of his students as interns and entry-level employees–or referred them to other communication professionals.
Kelly earned his BA in Communication from Rutgers in 1976. Three years ago, Kelly and his mentor and one-time faculty advisor Prof. Todd Hunt conceptualized and executed “Headline News: The Triumphs and Tragedies of Humankind,” a collection of newspaper front pages from important dates in U.S. history that hangs in the SC&I Student Lounge. The most recent addition to that permanent exhibit is a graphic that depicts newspaper coverage of the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001.
Kelly is a member of the SC&I Board of Advisory Associates, Secretary of the Gilbert Kelley Scholarship Fund, and past President of the SC&I Alumni Association. For the past 15 years, he and his wife, Karen, have funded annual scholarships for two juniors in the Communication program.
