About

Dr. Keenan Grenell, Ph.D. is an expert and game changer at the intersection of entrepreneurship, economic development, politics, diversity, and wealth creation ecosystems.  Dr. Grenell is the CEO of Global Capital Group, LLC.  Under his leadership, the firm has provided market research, analysis, and strategy planning for Fortune 500 companies, local governments, non-profits, small businesses, and institutions of higher learning.

Dr. Grenell was born in historic Mound Bayou, Mississippi and grew up in nearby Cleveland, Mississippi in the 1960s and 70s during some of the most turbulent times of the Civil Rights Movement.  Dr. Grenell’s mother and father were both schoolteachers and instilled in him at an early age how important it is to respect the power of education.  His father was also an entrepreneur and politician.

Dr. Grenell earned a BA in Political Science from Tougaloo College, a Master of Public Policy and Administration from Mississippi State University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northern Illinois University.  He is certified as a Strategic Research Team (SRT) Leader as part of the Economic Gardening Professional Certification through the Center for Economic Gardening in the Edward Lowe Foundation. Dr. Grenell has been an administrator and tenured faculty member at three top U.S. News and World Report institutions of higher learning.

Dr. Grenell is co-editor of the book, Entrepreneurship in South Africa and the United States: Comparative Studies (The Edwin Mellen Press, 2008). In addition to several published articles in academic journals and book chapters, Dr. Grenell has over 110 papers, presentations, and keynotes in minority entrepreneurship and economic development, supplier diversity, wealth creation ecosystems, innovation, public administration, diversity in higher education, leadership, and management.

Dr. Grenell is also the Executive Director of the Manufacturing Diversity Institute (MDI), the President of the Grenell Group, LLC (his family’s boutique management consulting firm), a Fellow with Think and Do Tank (TANDO),  the Administrator for the Business Connection Module of The Business Council (TBC), the Chair of the Research and Science Advisory Council of the Institute on Poverty and Systemic Racism, the research arm of Milwaukee County’s Social Development Commission (SDC), Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Milwaukee Regional Innovation Center, Inc., and a member of The Century Foundation and Urban Manufacturing Alliance Industry and Inclusion National Advisory Board.  Dr. Grenell is the former President of the Board of Directors for the 30th Street Industrial Corridor – an area that was once the centerpiece of Milwaukee’s industrial legacy, and co-founder and former President of Legacy Foundation which is Wisconsin’s largest privately black owned foundation.