Elena Grotto

Biography

Elena Grotto is an adjunct assistant professor of strategy at Booth, where she co-teaches Culture as a Competitive Business Advantage and Culture: A Competitive Business Advantage or Risk.

Additionally, she is an executive vice president and the group head of Edelman Chicago’s business transformation team. She works in lockstep with senior decision makers as they stabilize the workforce during periods of significant change—managing situations ranging from a merger-integration-spinoff, the launch of an evolved business strategy, or post-crisis reputation recovery.  

At Edelman, Elena manages culture and change programs that impact all phases of the employee journey—from attraction and onboarding to leadership development and retention. Across these distinct phases, Elena helps clients develop strategies to shift mindsets and behaviors, leveraging learning and development methodologies, behavioral science insights, and change management approaches. 

Elena specializes in creating targeted culture interventions—when employees need to adopt a new behavior to support an explicit mandate—and holistic culture transformation programs—where she works with C-suite leaders to define the specific behaviors and capabilities that will advance a business’s strategy. 

Elena joined Edelman after over 10 years at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where she held positions in the education and communications departments. This included working on a business transformation marked by the organization-wide rebrand and a $16 million dollar building redesign that was precipitated by a desire to better engage key stakeholders. 

Elena holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  She also earned an MA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BS from Skidmore College. She is co-author of the forthcoming book I Don't Just Work Here: The New Purpose of Workplace Culture. 

Academic Areas

• Strategy and Leadership