Brenda Kelly

President,  Materials Technologies

Brenda Kelly joined Grace in 2021 and was named President of Grace’s Materials Technologies business in January 2024. In her role, she leads the company’s fine chemical contract development and manufacturing services for custom active pharmaceutical ingredients, regulatory starting materials, and intermediates as well as the specialty materials portfolio, including silica-based and silica-alumina-based products used in a broad array of consumer, pharmaceutical, chemical processes, and coatings applications.

Prior to this role, Brenda was Vice President, Marketing for Materials Technologies, where she led the team in strategic planning initiatives and market activations across 30+ market segments. 

Before joining Grace, Brenda was Vice President of Marketing & Commercial Excellence at Oldcastle Building Envelope, a CRH Company, where she led commercial continuous improvement initiatives and marketing for a $3.5 billion company specializing in architectural glass, aluminum glazing systems and hardware.

Earlier in her career, Brenda spent over 20 years in the specialty chemicals industry, at both FMC and DuPont, in a variety of leadership positions across sales, marketing and strategic planning. She expanded her scope of responsibility while at DuPont to include leading global business operations for the company’s Nutrition & Health, Emulsifiers & Sweeteners business unit based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Brenda brings extensive experience building global teams, executing business strategy, driving growth opportunities, and managing high-performing operations.

Brenda earned a bachelor’s degree Agricultural Economics with honors from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Columbia University.