Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

ECOS

President & CEO

As President and CEO of ECOS plant-powered cleaning products, Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks is passionate about human and planetary health. She leads four manufacturing facilities across the U.S. as well as a European manufacturing platform. Vlahakis-Hanks is widely recognized for her highly effective leadership at ECOS and her influential voice in corporate social responsibility, safer chemistry, and sustainable manufacturing.

Vlahakis-Hanks led ECOS to become a Climate Positive company in 2021 after achieving carbon neutrality, water neutrality, and TRUE Platinum Zero Waste certification. ECOS is also the first manufacturer to receive LEED® Zero certifications in net-zero energy, carbon, and waste. The company has received many awards for its innovations in safer green chemistry, including the U.S. EPA’s Safer Choice Partner of the Year seven times.

As a woman of African American and Greek descent, Vlahakis-Hanks has made environmental and social justice a cornerstone of ECOS’s mission. She actively promotes a corporate culture of diversity and empowerment; 60% of her C-Suite and top executives are women and 40% are BIPOC. She is proud to lead a company that is a WBENC-certified women-owned business and an NMSDC-certified minority-owned business.

Vlahakis-Hanks supports the green economy by creating sustainable manufacturing jobs across the U.S. and offering excellent wages and family-friendly benefits. She also offers financial incentives to employees who make sustainable living choices, such as buying a low-emissions vehicle or solar panels.

Vlahakis-Hanks received her undergraduate degree at UCLA and her MBA at Chapman University. She has been featured on CNN, CBS News, ABC News, FOX News, NBC News, Bloomberg and MarketWatch and in publications such as Fortune, Entrepreneur and the Los Angeles Times. She has received several awards for her sustainable leadership, including Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Powerful Women in 2020
and Conscious Company’s World-Changing Women in Conscious Business.

Vlahakis-Hanks is an active member of several boards of directors, including the XPRIZE Foundation, which is incentivizing solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems, like climate change. She is active in industry councils and public policy advocacy, including the American Sustainable Business Network, working to promote higher standards for consumer products to protect human health and the
planet. She is also a member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) and Abundance 360, a select community of executives and entrepreneurs using exponential technologies to transform their businesses.

Vlahakis-Hanks resides in southern California with her husband Eric, an acclaimed African American art gallerist, their teenage daughter, and rescue dog.