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Carly Kadlec
MBA/MS Candidate at the Ross School of Business and School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
Professional Background
Carly Kadlec is a dedicated professional with a deep commitment to international agriculture, renewable energy, and trade. Her career is characterized by diverse experience that includes agricultural sourcing and supply chain development, highlighting her focus on climate resilience in collaboration with farmers in emerging markets. Carly’s multifaceted professional journey reflects a passion for sustainability and the empowerment of agricultural communities.
Carly began her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer, where she gained firsthand experience in agricultural practices and community development in international settings. This foundational role ignited her passion for improving the livelihoods of farmers and understanding the nuances of agricultural practices in diverse cultural contexts. After her impactful stint with the Peace Corps, Carly continued her journey in agriculture and sustainability through various roles that further honed her expertise.
In her role as Community Supported Agriculture Coordinator at the Minnesota Food Association, Carly worked directly with local farmers and consumers, bridging the gap between food production and community engagement. This position reinforced her commitment to sustainable farming and local food systems, allowing her to develop skills in program coordination and stakeholder engagement.
Carly’s experience as a Green Coffee Buyer at Equal Exchange was another significant chapter in her career. In this role, she was responsible for sourcing high-quality coffee while ensuring fair trade practices. Her efforts not only focused on business success but also aimed to promote ethical sourcing and support smallholder farmers.
Carly also served as Program Associate at the USDA, where she contributed to various agricultural programs, advocating for policies that support sustainable agriculture and rural development. This role allowed her to be at the forefront of discussions regarding agricultural innovation and climate resilience.
Carly further enhanced her expertise while working as an MBA Consultant for the Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (SERNANP). Here, she leveraged her academic knowledge and practical experience to help design strategies that promoted environmental conservation while supporting local economies.
Transitioning from her consultancy work, Carly interned with Nuup as a Summer Finance Intern, where she gained valuable insights into financial analysis within the agricultural sector. Concurrently, her experience as a Corporate Strategy Associate Intern at Cargill provided her with a corporate perspective on agriculture and supply chain management, showcasing her versatility in navigating different sectors within the industry.
Education and Achievements
Carly Kadlec's academic journey laid a strong foundation for her influential career. She earned her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Latin American Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, where she developed a profound understanding of the socio-economic challenges and opportunities present in Latin American agricultural markets. This educational background was crucial in shaping her approach to international business and sustainable development.
Carly further pursued her passion for sustainable enterprise by obtaining a Master of Business Administration (MBA/MS) from the University of Michigan's Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. Here, she combined her interests in business and environmental sustainability, gaining vital skills that would later inform her strategic decision-making in agriculture and supply chains. Her studies emphasized the importance of integrating social and environmental considerations into business strategies, a theme that continues to guide her professional work.
Achievements
Throughout her career, Carly has achieved notable milestones that underline her expertise and contributions to the fields of agriculture and sustainable trade. Her involvement with Fair Trade practices during her time as a Green Coffee Buyer at Equal Exchange stands out as a testament to her commitment to ethical sourcing and community empowerment.
Her various roles in prestigious organizations highlight her adaptability and the breadth of her experience in the agriculture sector. Carly's work in numerous countries and cultures has equipped her with a global perspective, essential for addressing the challenges posed by climate change and food security.
In summary, Carly Kadlec is an exemplar of a professional who combines academic rigor with practical experience to make meaningful contributions to the world of international agriculture and renewable energy. Her diverse portfolio of roles underscores her commitment to sustainability, making her a valuable asset in any environment focused on positive change and growth within agricultural systems. Carly's journey not only reflects her personal dedication but also embodies a broader mission to empower agricultural communities in emerging markets through resilient and sustainable practices.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.