The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program (DFEI) at the University of Colorado Denver Business School announces Kellye Gordon, Vice President, Ethics & Compliance and Legal Operations at VF Corporation, as the 2021 Bill Daniels Ethical Leader of the Year.
Kellye Gordon is being recognized for her hard work in ethics for VF Corporation, which currently employees over 30,000 people. Kellye uses her legal background to help VF promote ethical initiatives across many worldwide locations and a wide variety of brands, including Vans®, The North Face®, Timberland® and Supreme®. Trained as a lawyer, she designs creative ways to help VF employees understand how to follow complex compliance requirements while living their values in their everyday work. Kellye’s focus on using data and principles of behavioral psychology to drive company-wide initiatives has led to increased associate engagement, more targeted training and improved compliance results.
Since 2017, less than four years after Kellye launched VF’s Ethics and Compliance Program, the company has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as a World’s Most Ethical Companies honoree five years in a row.
Prior to working at VF, Kellye lived in Johannesburg, South Africa, leading the Africa legal department of a global engine manufacturer and spent time promoting HIV awareness among women. Kellye has served as Executive Sponsor for VF’s women’s employee resource group, WOVEN, and as an adjunct professor at Wake Forest University School of Law. She lives in Denver, Colorado, where VF is headquartered.
Kellye was recognized as the 2021 Bill Daniels Ethical Leader of the Year at the Small Business, Big Connections event presented by the CU Denver Business School and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. The event was held at the Asterisk Event Center, 1075 Park Ave West in Denver on Thursday, October 28 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
The Small Business, Big Connections event features and supports local entrepreneurs in their journeys and shares the stories behind their successes.
Read more and watch a video about Kellye and the award.
