Khalilah Cooper is the Executive Director of Design at Chick-fil-A, Inc. and is focused on designing the place where care comes to life for Customers, Team Members, and Operators. Having joined the company in 2013, Khalilah currently leads a talented group of designers, architects and engineers that proactively anticipates and creates new Restaurant formats, develops physical design solutions for new and existing Restaurants, and designs and supplies a warm and welcoming Restaurant environment. Prior to leading the Design team, Khalilah spent over 8 years focused on Customer Experience at Chick-fil-A. Most recently, she led the Service & Hospitality team, responsible for ensuring the service design and hospitality experience at Chick-fil-A remains best in class, while also leading a cross-enterprise leadership team focused on developing and driving CX strategy and stewarding a robust innovation pipeline.
Stemming from her passion for leadership development and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, Khalilah helped establish Women in Business at Chick-fil-A. Serving as Co-Director for 7 years, she dedicated herself to the professional development of female talent within the company. Since its inception in 2014, Women in Business grew from a small group of about 20 women, to a movement of over 600 members in 2021.
Prior to Chick-fil-A Khalilah was a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company, primarily working with consumer-packaged goods, retail, and non-profit clients to solve complex problems with a focus on marketing, organizational design, and eCommerce. She originally joined McKinsey as a Summer Associate and rejoined the Firm full time, after her graduation from Harvard Business School in 2011.
Khalilah’s professional career is rooted in customer research and product development. After receiving her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University, she joined Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products as a Scientist and later transitioned into a Go-to-Market leader role for the Aveeno® brand. At Johnson & Johnson, Khalilah led new product launches, cost improvement projects, and multiple reformulations across a variety of well-known brands including Aveeno®, Clean & Clear®,
Ambi®, Cortaid®, Band-Aid®, and Johnson’s Baby®.
A native of Chicago, Khalilah now lives in Fayetteville, GA with her husband, Edwin, and two young sons, Aiden and Ethan. Growing up on the Southside of Chicago, the daughter of a Chicago Public School teacher, Khalilah has a passion for educational equality and youth focused mentorship – particularly within underserved communities. Khalilah serves as a professional mentor and Sunday School teacher. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., has served on the Board of Trustees for Landmark Christian School and has also served as an undergraduate interviewer with the Harvard Club of Atlanta.
