Ken Stokes

Steering Committee

Ken Stokes and his wife, Dana Simpson-Stokes, grew up in Southern California where they met in college. After three decades of career-related moves around the USA (CA, IL, CT, NJ) and Europe (England, Spain, Netherlands) they “settled down” in Sonoma in 2012.

Ken is a former senior executive with many years of experience leading consumer goods companies in the USA and abroad. He spent much of his career with Reckitt Benckiser plc, a major international household cleaning, personal care, food and OTC pharmaceutical products company serving as CEO of companies in the USA, UK & Spain, and overseeing businesses in 24 countries across four continents. Ken also spent four years as a consultant with McKinsey & Company and held senior marketing roles with Wilson Sporting Goods and The Clorox Company.  

His community service experience includes the Board of Education of a top-ranked NJ K-12 public school district, the Board of Directors of the Morris County NJ School Boards Association, and Firefighter & President of his local NJ volunteer fire department. More recently Ken served as Trustee & Chair of Olin College of Engineering (2011-2021, Needham, MA), Director & President of the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (2018-2025),  and on the Board of the Sonoma Valley Fund (2017-2020).  Ken & Dana are proud parents of two adult children: Lauren, a university professor, and Connor, a software & data analytics engineer, both of whom live out of state.  Ken earned a BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College, and an MBA in Finance & Marketing from the University of Chicago/Booth School of Business.