Executive Forum with Keith Risinger, Executive Director of Leadership Development for Eli Lilly and Company

The Executive Forum is open to the public, as seating permits, and provides opportunities for the exchange of ideas and discussion of topics and issues facing business and management.

Keith Risinger is Executive Director of Leadership Development at Eli Lilly and Company, where he has spent 27 years helping leaders and teams perform at their best. His work is grounded in the practical realities of leadership—how leaders create clarity, build discipline, strengthen trust, and translate strategy into action through the teams they lead.
Across his career, Keith has coached, taught, analyzed, and advised leaders across the company, with a consistent focus on improving performance where it matters most: in the everyday decisions, behaviors, conversations, and operating rhythms that shape team effectiveness. He helps leaders move beyond good intentions and broad leadership concepts to the practical work of setting direction, aligning effort, making tradeoffs, and creating the conditions for teams to deliver meaningful results.
 

Keith is known for bringing a discerning and pragmatic perspective to leadership development. He challenges conventional wisdom that may sound compelling in theory but fails to hold up in real-world environments, while embracing the principles, practices, and insights that have consistently created value over time. His approach blends internal experience with external perspective, including work with universities and leading thought leaders who help bring research, challenge, and fresh thinking to the way leaders learn and grow.
 

Outside of work, Keith enjoys life with his wife, Jill, and their two children, Grace and Ryan. He is also an avid fly fisherman who appreciates the patience, focus, and presence the sport requires—qualities that show up in both his time on the water and his work with leaders and teams.