Her Story
About Karissa
Karissa Keck serves as Global Business Process Management Advisor for manufacturing and supply chain processes at Cargill, where she has spent the past 10 years. In her role she works with global SAP project teams on future state processes and gap identification while also leading process improvement projects in manufacturing and supply chain. Her educational background includes an undergraduate degree in bioproducts and biosystems engineering with a food engineering emphasis from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt and is a member of Women in Manufacturing as well as the North America region lead for the Cargill Women's Network.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Karissa
01What do you attribute your success to?
Probably a dissatisfaction with the status quo, like always wanting to be better. Find ways to make things better myself and the environments that I work in. Just keep reaching for bigger and better things.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
When I was a co-op right when I started with Cargill, a manager told me to just always think about how you can make something better than when you found it, no matter what it is, even if that's not your job, try to look for ways to improve. That stuck with me and led me to pursue Lean Six Sigma training.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be curious and network. Just keep learning everything.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
AI is a big challenge and opportunity right now. It brings opportunities to be more effective and reduce manual work. I use it every day myself. There's a lot of opportunity in applying AI to business processes, but also the challenge of prioritizing the right things and managing all the impacts and change.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Family is a value, spending time with family. Inclusion is another one, because teams do their best work when they feel like they belong and are part of a team. I'm passionate about women being able to get through barriers and succeed in the workplace.
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