Best-Selling Author and International Business Consultant Robert Kelley to Receive Colorado State Honor Alumnus Award

Best-selling author and renowned management consultant Robert E. Kelley will receive the College of Natural Sciences Honor Alumnus Award at the Colorado State University Alumni Association’s annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner on May 2. Kelley is being honored for his professional success and in recognition of his lasting dedication to Colorado State.

"Kelley is an entrepreneur of the mind who consistently stays ahead of the pack in creating new management practices used by world-class organizations," said Rick Miranda, dean of the College of Natural Sciences. "The education that Dr. Kelley received at Colorado State was the foundation for a distinguished career that, in turn, serves as a model for our students to emulate."

Kelley, an adjunct professor of business at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie Mellon University, graduated from Colorado State in 1977 with a doctorate in psychology, specializing in industrial and organizational psychology. Kelley currently splits his time among teaching, writing and consulting, and is known for his pioneering research in the emerging fields of intellectual capital, knowledge management and star performer productivity.

Kelley is author of the best-selling book "How to be a Star at Work: Nine Breakthrough Strategies You Need to Succeed," one of the top sellers of 1998. He coined the term Gold-Collar Worker in a book by the same name to describe the new breed of worker whose value to the marketplace is brainpower. He pioneered the concept of Followership in his best-selling book "The Power of Followership." His Harvard Business Review article, "In Praise of Followers," was a top 25 best-selling reprint for the publication, and he wrote the best-selling book "Consulting."

Kelley recently was included in a Business Week cover story titled "Management’s New Gurus." As president of Consultants to Executives and Organization, Kelley trains national and international clients such as AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Merrill Lynch, Merck and 3M to manage brain power. He also leads speeches and lectures to business and government executives around the world.

Kelley’s body of work has been acclaimed in the United States and throughout the world. His ideas have been featured on NBC’s "The Today Show," "CBS Evening News," ABC, CNN, National Public Radio, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and several other media outlets. His books have been translated into Japanese, German, Chinese, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish.

Kelley currently is consulting and writing about how to:

• leverage intellectual capital as a firm’s key competitive weapon;
• turn average performers into superstars;
• cultivate successful follower-leader partnerships;
• make organizations customer-driven and improve the quality of service/product; and
• create premier institutions that will succeed.

Kelley continues to support Colorado State by making financial donations to Alumni Relations, the College of Natural Sciences and the President’s Office.