Kay Ellen Consolver, 2000
“Who is going to cook dinner for your husband when you are traveling on business?” was the question faced by Kay Ellen 
during an interview with a partner of a Wall Street law firm in 1969. It is difficult to contemplate that such a question would be posed today, but not so difficult for women in the Class of 1960 as they entered professional careers. Kay Ellen did not let this line of questions deter her from her goal and began her legal career at another preeminent Wall Street firm. She did not have to worry about her husband’s well-being because, as she advised her questioner, her husband knew how to cook for himself. The interviewing lawyer had no clue with whom he was dealing as Kay Ellen embarked on a very successful legal career.
When she entered law school at the University of Wisconsin, the nationwide enrollment of women was under 5%, a figure remarkably unchanged until that time for decades. Now, it is over 55% – roughly reflecting the percentage of women in the general population. Consequently, the choices she had were somewhat circumscribed when she graduated – for example, many major law firms simply refused to interview women at her school. An opportunity presented itself, however, and she became the first woman to be a law clerk on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Thus empowered, Kay Ellen spent six years at a Wall Street law firm and them became the first female attorney in Mobil’s international division. During her 20-year career with Mobil, she held legal, business and financial positions, traveling to 65 countries and six continents with her work.
Not content to sit back and watch after her Mobil years, Kay Ellen combined her legal experience with an entrepreneurial bent, launching a consultancy firm that developed innovative hiring practices and outplacement services for major law firms in Boston and New York, and then a company that reduced the cost of outside counsel fees for major corporations through competitive bidding online.
In 2002, she returned to her love of drama – nurtured at East High – when she and her husband moved to London. There she founded a company to invest and produce theater and to date has been involved in over 15 productions in London and New York, five of which have been nominated for industry awards.
She continues to be actively engaged in giving back to the next generation of women leaders through her membership in the International Women’s Forum, which invites to membership women who are recognized as leaders globally. Through the London Forum, which she chaired from 2007-2009, she led the development of a program to identify and mentor young women who are emerging as leaders of tomorrow.
Editor’s note: This is the fourth article in the series as reported by Dave Kroenlein in “The Messenger” for our 50-year class reunion in 2010.
Kay Ellen participated in many East High activities, especially theater. 1960 Echoes Photos: Pat Maben, Kay Ellen Consolver, and Connie Miller practiced the Charleston before tryouts for “The Boy Friend.” Kay Ellen played the role of Maizie in “The Boy Friend,” opposite Kenny Mitchell, ’62.
