National President

Link Margot James Copeland -

Margot James Copeland is Executive Vice President - Director, Corporate Diversity & Philanthropy and an Executive Council member at KeyCorp, one of the nation’s largest bank-based multiline financial services companies. In her role, Copeland also serves as chair of the KeyBank Foundation, guiding the company’s strategic philanthropic investment, financial education and workforce development programs that encourage people and communities to achieve economic self-sufficiency. Since assuming her role of Chief Diversity Officer at Key in 2001, Key has been ranked as a Top 50 Company for Diversity for five years by Diversity Inc.

Copeland is a career human resources professional championing environments where people can realize their full potential. She has held positions of increasing responsibility at Xerox Corporation, Polaroid, and Picker International (now Phillips Medical Systems). Prior to joining Key, Copeland served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Cleveland Roundtable and Executive Director of Leadership Cleveland. She is a former advisory board member of Firstar NA – Northern Ohio Region (currently US Bank).

Recognizing that business and community prosperity go hand in hand, Copeland leads Key’s commitment to transforming and sustaining communities. She currently serves as trustee of Kent State University, the Thomas White Foundation; Kenneth Scott Foundation; The Great Lakes Museum of Science, Environment and Technology; University Hospitals Health System and the Delta Foundation (Washington, DC). Additionally, she is Mentor/Protégé Program Advisor for Morehouse College (Atlanta, Georgia); and a member of the President’s and the Business School Advisory boards at Hampton University (Hampton, Virginia). Copeland is the National President of The Links, Incorporated (Washington D.C.), and also a member of the Executive Leadership Council (Washington, DC).

Copeland was a delegate to the White House Conference on America’s Future. In addition to her experience leading the Greater Cleveland Roundtable and Leadership Cleveland, Copeland’s public service is marked by her appointment to Vice Chairperson of the Cleveland Bicentennial Commission and subsequently the Cleveland Millennium Commission by former Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White, whose second term Inaugural Committee she chaired.

Among her many distinguished awards and honors are:

• One of the “100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America” as recognized by national publication, Savoy magazine

• One of the “100 Most Powerful Women in Cleveland,” by New Cleveland Woman magazine

• Named a “Cleveland Woman of Influence,” by Crain’s Cleveland Business

• Recognized as “Master Innovator” by Smart Business Network magazine

• Featured in Northern Ohio Live magazine’s “Reflections: -African-American Achievements in Cleveland”

• YWCA Career Woman of Achievement Award

• The 2006 Black Professional of the Year as recognized by Black Professionals Association Charitable Foundation

• W.O. Walker Excellence in Community Service Award, sponsored by the Call and Post newspaper

• The National Council of Negro Women, Cleveland Section, Unsung Hero Award

• Coalition of 100 Black Women, Community Service Award

• Business Person of the Year, by the National Black MBA, Cleveland Chapter

• Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Community Service Award

Copeland holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Hampton University, where she has received the university’s distinguished Alumni Award, and a Master of Arts degree, Educational Development, College of Education, The Ohio State University. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, The Girl Friends, Inc. and a former member of Jack and Jill of America. A native Virginian, she resides in Cleveland, Ohio and is the mother of three children, Reverend Kimberley S. Copeland, Dr. Garrison E. Copeland and Michael Patterson Taylor Copeland.

« Go back