Bringing a wealth of experience in agribusiness, food, and financial services with her return to the firm, Kincannon & Reed welcomes Julie Kanak back as a Managing Director.
Engaging and collaborative, Kanak is a skilled global leadership consultant and search professional with a passion for transformational leadership, innovation, and sustainability. She joins the growing international team of Kincannon & Reed principals placing leaders across the food-ag value chain.
Not only is Kanak a champion for and expert in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, but her comprehensive knowledge of international markets and ability to understand business needs contribute to the organizational success of her clients across the food and agribusiness sectors.
“Julie is known for being a strategic, trusted advisor with a track record of success,” K&R Senior Vice President of Operations Kelly Griffin commented. “The breadth and depth of her background in executive search and banking search will prove incredibly beneficial to our clients and prospective candidates alike.”
Kanak’s portfolio spans 18 years of assisting clients with succession planning, leadership development, culture building, and constructing inclusive balanced teams. Her recruiting work focuses on board members, CEOs, and other C-level and business unit leadership roles across general management, finance, commercial, strategy, operations, and supply chain for a broad range of public and private entities and associations.
Financial services is an important focus. Kanak brings more than two decades of hands-on banking experience spanning community, commercial through global corporate, and investment banking. As a search professional, she has placed numerous leaders in CEO, CFO, Risk, Origination and Client Management, Capital Markets, and Business Units roles with global, national, and regional institutions and government-sponsored entities.
“I’m elated to rejoin K&R and contribute to its dedication to delivering excellent leadership solutions to advance agribusiness and food under our shared 40+ year mission of recruiting leaders for organizations that feed the world and keep it healthy,” Kanak said. “During my time away, I gained new perspectives and I’m excited to bring my expertise to the incredible organizations K&R partners with.”
Kanak holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and earned her BBA from the University of Iowa. She is the former chair of The Thirty Percent Coalition and is an active member of the Economic Club of Chicago and The Chicago Club. In 2019 she was named to the Diversity Journal’s Women Worth Watching. Kanak is regularly sought out for professional speaking and panelist engagement.
