As senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Evergy, Lesley Elwell leads the human resources organization with an emphasis on talent strategy, employee engagement, organizational development and performance management. She has more than 25 years of experience holding human resources and operations leadership roles for large, publicly traded companies in consumer and business-to-business industries.

Ms. Elwell previously served as chief people officer at JE Dunn, from 2017-2021, where she led the transformation of JE Dunn’s human resource functions and aligned talent strategies with its strategic business priorities. Before joining JE Dunn, she served as Vice President People Strategy/HR Business Partner of Walmart Corporation (2016-2017), where she played a key role in the people transformation re-writing the associate experience, and digitally enabling all the workplace, HR, and management practices that impact people on the job. Prior to joining Walmart Corporation, she served as Vice President HR Business Partner Operations at DIRECTV (2012-2015), and in various roles of increasing responsibility, including as Vice President, with Sprint Corporation (1997-2012; 2015-2016).

Ms. Elwell currently serves on the boards of Tecta America, a commercial nationwide roofing company; Operation Breakthrough – Kansas City; the Full Employment Council and Kansas City & Vicinity Area Workforce Investment Board and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City. She also serves in an advisory capacity for the Kansas City Girl’s Preparatory Academy and the University of Kansas International Affairs Advisory board.

Ms. Elwell received her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Universidad Nacional Experimental del Táchira, Venezuela and a Master of Engineering Management from the University of Kansas where she was a Fulbright Scholar.

Lesley’s other interests include economic, governance and social-political issues in developing countries. She enjoys reading, long walks, and when possible, traveling to the Caribbean with her husband, Brian, and two girls – Isabella (24) and Arianna (21).