Biography - Leonard J Kelly

An honors graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy where he earned a BS degree in mathematics, Len Kelly also holds an MS degree in operations research from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MS degree in statistics from the University of Connecticut, where he subsequently earned his PhD.

Len has served as a senior consultant for AIM Consulting Associates and as a professor of management in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School of Management & Technology, where he also held an affiliated appointment in the Department of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he served as the chair of the Lally School of Management & Technology at Hartford and coordinated the Executive Masters Program in Strategic Thinking and Leadership.

A retired Coast Guard Captain, Len joined RPI after a long and distinguished service career. While in the Coast Guard he was assigned to six different Coast Guard cutters and served as the commanding officer of three of them—including one of the first Coast Guard ships with a mixed gender crew. He directed numerous internal consulting efforts related to process improvements in many Coast Guard mission areas including: facility and cutter location decisions, inventory control, personnel staffing and selection processes, crewing standards for large Coast Guard cutters, and the analysis of effectiveness in the mission areas of drug enforcement and search and rescue. While assigned to the Coast Guard Academy he held the academic rank of professor and taught courses in the departments of Mathematics and Management & Leadership. His leadership positions included Head of the Department of Mathematics, Assistant Dean of Academics, and Associate Dean of Academics.

Currently, his teaching, research, and consulting interests focus on the development and implementation of sound decision-making strategies to foster process improvement and enhance leadership. Named Professor Emeritus of the faculty of the U. S. Coast Guard Academy on October 1, 1999, Len is the youngest person ever to receive this distinction. Additionally, he is a member of the Coast Guard Academy’s Athletic Hall of Fame.