KELLY Klein
Company: Groennfell Meadery LLC
Title: CEO
Age: 30
Favorite Vermont Escape: One of my favorite places to visit is Shelburne Museum. The grounds are beautiful, and there's always something new to see there.
Favorite Downtime Activity: Now that I have a 4-month-old, my favorite thing to do in my free time is play with her. We mostly play peek-a-boo, as she is not great at checkers.
Person you would like to share a Vermont beverage with: I’d love to share a pint of Craft Mead with Kim Jordan, the founder and longtime CEO of New Belgium Brewing.
What is the best career advice you have received? While it may sound like a cliché by now, there is no doubt that the best advice I've received is, "If you're working for your business, you're not working on your business." It's a great reminder to let go of trying to do everything myself, to trust my employees, and to focus on doing the things that only I can do for my company.
Where do you see yourself professionally in ten years? In ten years, I hope to still be involved in Groennfell Meadery, but I’d like to act more as a president than a CEO. I’d love to be able to devote time to mentoring other young women entrepreneurs.
What motivated you to live and work in Vermont? Even though I moved away from Vermont after college, I couldn't stay away for long. I love the mountains and the people here, and I knew that this was where I wanted to raise a family.
Career Highlights: After founding and running a nonprofit to help refugees and working as the manager of a high-end tea shop, I founded Groennfell Meadery with my husband. I had realized from my work with my nonprofit that I enjoyed setting up the systems that make an organization tick, so I stepped into the role of CEO for the company. While it seemed a bit surreal at the time to be the 26-year-old CEO of a brewery, today we have 9 employees including the two founders, and we sell our mead in nearly 200 locations around the state of Vermont.
Community Involvement: I'm the vice president of the board of the Women Business Owners Network, which provides support and education to women in business. I am also a member of the Public Policy Committee of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and on the Leadership Committee for Main Street Alliance Vermont. Our business supports many local and international nonprofits, including Lake Champlain International, the Rotary Foundation, Outright Vermont, and Strides Against Breast Cancer, through donations and hosting fundraising events.