Kelly O'Donnell

With over 20 years in the financial services industry, Kelly has played a critical role in leading our strategy and developing our client relationships by making high-quality advisory services accessible to millions of employees.

As president of Employer Solutions, Kelly leads the teams that deliver our unique offering and client experience to employees and employers. As a leader in the defined contribution industry, EFE has 20 years of experience working with employees and helping to improve outcomes. Today hundreds of the largest employers in the country who represent 10 million employees and over $1.4 trillion in retirement assets offer EFE managed accounts in the workplace.

Prior to her current role, Kelly served as a co-chief client officer and was responsible for driving client centricity and growth for the firm. In this role, Kelly’s core responsibilities included leadership of our workplace relationships, employee planning solutions, as well as enterprise brand marketing and communications and enablement teams to drive the firm’s operational excellence.

Kelly previously served as the EVP and head of Workplace and helped to establish relationships with the leading plan providers and employers. In a previous role as chief administrative officer and chief risk officer for Edelman Financial Engines, Kelly was responsible for setting our long-term vision and helping the company execute on our strategy through leadership of our Corporate Strategy and Development, Corporate Communications, Legal & Compliance, Human Resources, and Risk Management functions. Kelly joined Financial Engines in 2003 and, during her tenure, has held several additional leadership roles, including Business Operations and Marketing.

Prior to joining Financial Engines, Kelly was director of consulting and an analyst for Cerulli Associates and a manager and associate at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Kelly is the founder and executive sponsor of the Edelman Financial Engines Women in Leadership program which helps develop women into leaders in the organization and the financial services industry. In addition, Kelly is an influential voice through her testimony on financial issues on Capitol Hill, an expert on the future of innovation at financial technology conferences, and as a media resource on the topic of women & investing. Kelly also serves on the Executive Committee of the Employee Benefits Research Institute, a non-profit, independent, and unbiased resource organization that provides the most authoritative and object information about critical issues relating to employee benefit programs in the United States.

Kelly received a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from the University of Missouri and was selected as a participant for Harvard Business School’s Women in Leadership Executive Program.