Judges, Criteria, Process

Lori Costew

Lori Costew is Ford Motor Company’s Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer. In this role, she oversees the company’s corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts to cultivate a culture of belonging and advance the organization’s mission and business objectives. Since assuming this role in June 2019, she has been instrumental in accelerating the company’s culture transformation strategy and embedding DEI into the business. For nearly three decades working for the company, Costew has leveraged her expertise in positions supporting Lincoln, UAW negotiations, equal employment planning and organizational development.

Costew is an innovative HR thought leader focused on delivering a global transformational people strategy aligned with ever-evolving business priorities. In addition to her leadership role at Ford, she is an accomplished author of two award-winning novels that provide inspiration and tools against bullying. She has a master’s degree in human resources from The Ohio State University and a certification in executive coaching from the Hudson Institute.

Shaista Khilji

Shaista E. Khilji is a professor of human and organizational learning and international affairs at George Washington University (GWU) and the founder of the Humanizing Initiative, a research institute and consultancy. She is an accomplished academic with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and has served as the founding editor-in-chief of the South Asian Journal of Business Studies. At GWU she was founding program director of the Organizational Leadership & Learning program, and member of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee during the pandemic and within the context of a leadership crisis. In 2020, she co-authored a faculty resolution that urged the university administration to focus on developing anti-racist policies. From 2020-2021 she co-chaired a faculty task force that provided a full report on the status of DEI at the university, and from 2021-2022 she co-chaired the Shared Governance Taskforce.

Currently, she is a member of the Diversity Program Review Team and DEI Advisory Council at GWU. Prof. Khilji has well-established expertise in leadership, talent development, cross-cultural management, organizational change, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Her most recent work focuses on making sense of inequalities within organizations, macro talent management (a field of study that she helped establish), humanizing leadership education, and exploring the paradoxes of diversity practice. Between 2013 and 2017, Prof. Khilji served as the Co-PI of a US$ 1 million project (funded by the US Dept. of State) that focused on women’s empowerment in Pakistan by building academic partnerships and creating people-to-people ties.

Prof. Khilji has authored more than 140 papers, published many scholarly articles in tier-1 academic journals, edited book chapters, and presented internationally at conferences. She has won many awards, including the Best Reviewer and Outstanding Service awards from the Academy of Management, Best Paper Award from the Academy of International Business, GWU’s Service Excellence Award for hosting the Clinton Global Initiative University (in the collaborative category) at GWU, and VALOR Award for cross-disciplinary work. She blogs at https://medium.com/@shaistakhilji.

Manel Khadraoui

Manel Khadraoui is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Tunis Business School, University of Tunis, Tunisia. She is interested in various methods to treat problematics related to the use of technology and is currently working on the analysis of online reviews using machine learning techniques within contexts such as healthcare, airline flights and internet banking. She is also a personal and professional coach, providing guidance to individuals and groups to reach their personal and professional objectives.

Prof. Khadraoui was previously advisor to the Minister of Regional Development and Planning in Tunisia. In this position, she worked on creating the index of well-being within governmental efforts to close development gaps between regions and empower more vulnerable populations. She also managed the Center of Carriers and Professional Certification at Tunis Business School and organized many events by convening different stakeholders.

Kim Eric Bettcher

Kim Bettcher leads the Center for International Private Enterprise’s (CIPE) Policy and Program Learning initiative, which captures lessons learned in democratic and economic institution-building around the world. The initiative shares strategies, best practices, and lessons with an international network of reform leaders. Dr. Bettcher has written and edited numerous resources for CIPE, especially toolkits on public-private dialogue and anti-corruption, a report on Creating the Environment for Entrepreneurial Success, three case study collections, the CIPE Guide to Governance Reform, and CIPE’s 25-Year Impact Evaluation. Bettcher has published articles in the Harvard Business Review, Party Politics, SAIS Review, and the Business History Review. He has taught as an adjunct professor at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy and was previously a research associate at Harvard Business School. Bettcher holds a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College.

John Lafkas

John Lafkas is Senior Editor, Cases and Pedagogy at Harvard Business Publishing. He has co-authored several cases and was previously an instructor at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his M.A. in Management.

Greg Merkley

Greg Merkley is the Director of Case Publishing for the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He and his team have developed over 600 case studies, simulations, and technical notes used in over 1,300 institutions in more than 100 countries. He has also taught marketing and global management courses at Kellogg. Before joining Kellogg, Greg worked as a consultant, a corporate executive, and an entrepreneur. He earned a BA in Japanese Language and Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles, and later received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.