K. Shelly Porges is a Senior Advisor leading the Global Women’s Business Initiative at the US State Department. She is a recognized expert in marketing and strategy development with significant experience in launching products, brands and companies, and with particular expertise in the banking and financial services industries. As a senior executive, she has led some of the nation’s leading financial institutions in developing and executing marketing strategies in both start-up and turn-around environments, including the internet and new media. As a consultant and advisor, she has also consulted with numerous Fortune 500 company executive teams and financial services organizations on marketing and product strategy. Presently, after a successful career as a corporate executive, consultant and entrepreneur, she serves full-time as an investor and board member in a variety of organizations.

Ms. Porges’ career highlights include a ten-year stint at American Express, culminating as executive head of marketing for American Express Canada, followed by three years as Senior Vice President of Retail Product Management for Bank of America during its historic turn-around in the late 1980’s. As Bank of America’s chief retail marketing officer, she helped the Bank move from 23rd to #1 in consumer lending in the country, as well as from last to first in deposit and revenue growth among the nation’s major banks. Subsequently, as founder and CEO of Porges/Hudson Marketing, Ms. Porges led this well-known and-respected boutique strategy and marketing advisory firm serving major clients in the financial services, telecommunications and other industries.

Ms. Porges has also held executive positions in a number of start-up and internet ventures, including Executive Vice President of Strategic Marketing for a subsidiary of Wachovia Bank (then First Union), where she ran a strategic alliance business, and launched an internet lending business which grew to over $100 million in its first full year of operation. She served as Executive Vice President-Marketing for Third Age Media, at the time, a leading Internet portal site that was named one of the Top 10 Most Popular Sites on the Web in 2000, and also served as Chief Marketing Officer of Scudder Weisel Capital LLC, a specialty investment firm joint ventured by investment bank Thomas Weisel Partners, and Zurich Scudder Investments, one of the largest asset managers in the world.

From 2003 to 2008, Ms. Porges was a co-founder and managing partner of Global Payments Experts LLC, a consulting firm providing business strategy, risk management, marketing, and product development consulting to leading companies in the payments and financial services industry.

Ms. Porges holds both a Bachelor of Science and MPS degree from Cornell University. Quoted frequently over the years on marketing topics in a variety of national and industry publications (e.g., New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune and the American Banker), she was also a contributor to such books as The AMA Handbook of Services Marketing, If It Ain’t Broke, Break It!, and How to Run a Small Business. A long-time member of the Financial Women’s Association, she served as the organization’s 49th president in 2004, and has served on both corporate boards as well as a variety of non-profit boards. Since 2006, she has been Chair of the Board of Directors of Count-Me-In for Women’s Economic Independence, leading non-profit aimed at catalyzing growth of women-owned businesses.