Kathleen Phelps to join FORTNA as chief financial officer

FORTNA, a leading automation and software company for the full logistics value chain, today announced the appointment of Kathleen Phelps as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for FORTNA. Phelps brings 20 years of financial leadership experience with global multi-billion-dollar businesses and offers a robust background of driving seamless enterprise integrations, systems implementations and organizational transformations.

FORTNA noted that Phelps is passionate about working across functions to foster a unified culture and achieve business objectives. Her career includes 12 years with Newell Brands, a publicly traded company of many well-known consumer brands (Coleman, Rubbermaid, Sharpie, others); four years with publicly traded packaging giant WestRock; and most recently, she served as CFO for cement producer Argos USA. In her most recent role, she played a pivotal part in optimizing the company’s financial systems and processes, significantly growing its value, and executing a successful sale.

Kathleen holds an MBA from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Business from The University of Georgia. She currently serves on the Alumni Board of The University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business and on the Board of Trustees of Springmont School.

“The CFO role is crucial to our strategy and growth and propelling us toward the future we envision. Kathleen thrives on improving business performance, linking operations and finance, building relationships and removing obstacles to empower teams to act,” stated Rob McKeel, Chief Executive Officer, FORTNA. “I’m excited to welcome Kathleen to the FORTNA executive leadership team and look forward to her many contributions to our future success.”

FORTNA's services and products include network strategy, distribution center operational design and implementation, material handling automated equipment, robotics and a comprehensive suite of lifecycle services.