Keith D. Ellison empowers others to learn more about themselves and the opportunities they face. He launched The Ellison Group in 2000 offering leadership development services with an emphasis on improving managerial and communication skills and reducing cycle-times of operational processes. Since 2000, business leaders across multiple industries have used The Ellison Group to improve sales, profits, and shareholder value. His clients have included American Express, Xerox, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lockheed Martin, Novo Nordisk, CIGNA, Schering-Plough, CVS, Philadelphia International Airport, Philadelphia Gas Works, International Broadcasting Bureau, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Department of Human Services and Philadelphia Department of Public Health, to name a few. 

In 2008, Keith launched the Entrepreneurship Center for the Urban League of Philadelphia and currently serves as its director, where he leads a team of business consultants who offer coaching, training, technical assistance, and specialized services to entrepreneurs in the Philadelphia area. Since its inception, the Center has serviced over 2,500 aspiring and experienced business owners, resulting in over $100 million in financing and contracts and 700 new jobs.

Keith teaches Management Communication to first-year students at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he also teaches Essentials of Leadership (virtually) to high-achieving, college-bound students from around the world.  Keith also serves as the lead instructor for the Martin Luther King, Leadership Development Institute in Harrisburg, PA, a professional education program of Penn State University, Harrisburg.

Before forming The Ellison Group, Keith served for two years as the Associate Director of the Wharton Small Business Development Center (SBDC), providing technical assistance to high-growth businesses. Under his leadership, the SBDC coached more than 1,200 individuals and small businesses resulting in over $50 million in debt and equity financing.

Between 1995 and 2000, Keith launched and published Next Step, a quarterly magazine that explored all aspects of diversity in the workplace. Later he co-authored Conversations on Success, a life enhancement book with candid, insightful, and inspirational lessons on success (Insight Publishing). Building on his experiences in publishing and consulting, he became a professional speaker, facilitator, and expert witness at various conferences, seminars, and public hearings. His most notable events: testifying before the U.S. Congress; teaching entrepreneurial management in Beijing, China; airing on Talk to America (90 million worldwide listeners); and appearing on three segments of The Black Enterprise Report.

His corporate background includes positions at IBM, Proctor & Gamble, and Manor Care, Inc. Keith earned an MBA from the Wharton School and a B.S. in electrical engineering and mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University.