"To use an ECE analogy, I think the best thing about an engineering education is that it teaches you to separate the ‘signal’ from the ‘noise.’ As business, technology, and society become increasingly complex, this ability to identify and focus on what matters is becoming a leader’s most critical skill."

 

Elizabeth Klimes (BSEE ’79) was named in 2004 to develop and lead Eli Lilly’s deployment of Six Sigma, and is also a member of the company’s senior management forum, a group of top executives who implement corporate strategies, ensure corporate performance, and identify corporate issues and opportunities. She had been president of Specialty Care Products since December 2002.

An Indiana native now residing in Greenwood, Klimes is also a graduate of Indiana University where she earned her MBA. She joined Lilly in 1982 as a design engineer in process automation and subsequently worked in manufacturing facility and capacity planning before becoming manager of manufacturing strategy development in 1989. Her various other positions with the company have included executive director and chief procurement officer, as well as general manger of Lilly Deutschland GmbH. She is a member of the board of trustees at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and serves on the advisory board for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue.