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Melissa Lenk MPA 2005 Starts New Job as Member of Cargill's Leadership Development Group

Patrick Marx MPA 1998

As Dean David Ellwood was in China bringing the Kennedy School story to south Asia early this spring another Minnesota native and HKS graduate was landing a few thousand miles down the road in Singapore.

Melissa Lenk (MPA 2005) landed in Singapore to start her new job where she will deploy her HKS concentrations on leadership studies, business ethics and international development as a member of Cargill’s leadership development group, working with high-potential mid-level Cargill managers. Cargill, which is among the world’s largest processor and distributor of agricultural and food products, has had a presence in Singapore since 1974 where currently there are 400 employees that generated $1.5 billion in sales last year.

Her work is guided by Cargill’s mission to be “a global leader in nourishing people,” where the approach is “to be trustworthy, creative and enterprising,” and a rigorous world-wide commitment to corporate citizenship. (See: www.cargill.com/about/citizenship.)

“Since I started on 1 April, we've had programs in Singapore, Shanghai and Bangkok,” Lenck reported in a late May email to Minnesota. “We often have two programs per month - which means minimum two weeks out of the office. I'm looking forward to an upcoming program in Ho Chi Minh City in August

“At Cargill we focus on behavioral change. This means every leadership program has a self-awareness component as well as a session on feedback. Participants all have journals and learning partners to help hold each other accountable for trying new behaviors on the job.

“The two leadership programs I'm responsible for managing, -- High Performance Management and Transitioning into Leadership, are 3 and 5 modules. Each module is 4 days and takes place in a different location.

“It’s demanding and an opportunity to learn and work with people who see things differently, which is especially important as the world becomes smaller,” Lenk said, shortly before leaving Minnesota.

Lenk joined Cargill in March 2006 at corporate headquarters where she was engaged with the company’s High Performance Leadership Academy and initiated efforts to expand the learning and development leadership portfolio.

Call her a world citizen. Before joining Cargill and previous to her HKS mid-career year, Lenk spent three years on agricultural land reform in the Former Soviet Republic of Moldova. Four years with Habitat for Humanity International in Europe/Central Asia initiating the first program in Russia and managing programs in Poland, Armenia, Macedonia, Portugal and Turkey.

Prior to leaving Minnesota Lenk said that she had contacted alums, including several in Singapore, who “welcomed me with open arms” and she plans to be active and “foster global connections for learning and understanding.”

And, she said, she hopes that she will be able to join in the next time Dean Ellwood comes to Asia.