Detroit Regional Chamber Bio
Detroit Regional Chamber > Katherine M. Gehl

Katherine M. Gehl

Former President and CEO, Gehl Foods

Katherine Gehl is a business leader, author, and speaker. She was president and CEO of Gehl Foods, a $250 million high-tech food manufacturing company before selling the company in 2015 to focus her career on political reform.

Gehl’s career includes roles in the private and public sectors including at Oracle Corporation, Bernstein Investment Research and Management, Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Office at the City of Chicago, and Chicago Public Schools. Most recently, she co-authored with Michael Porter Why Competition in the Politics Industry Is Failing America: A strategy for reinvigorating our democracy which reveals their findings and analysis on innovation to America’s divided political system.

In 2018, Gehl co-founded Democracy Found, a Wisconsin-based initiative mobilizing a bipartisan group of leaders to implement electoral innovations in Wisconsin. Gehl graduated from the University of Notre Dame and earned a master’s degree from Catholic University.