Josh Klein

Josh Klein joined the ESG Talent Strategy team in 2026, where he works with regions, employers, and workforce systems to strengthen the partnerships and pathways connecting people to quality jobs. He brings more than a decade of experience across every side of the employer engagement equation: designing talent strategy inside large companies, running programs and grants at the local level, and advising leaders in communities across the country. His work centers on regional workforce planning, employer engagement strategy, and systems alignment.

Prior to joining ESG, Josh served as Director of Talent Management for Comcast’s West Division, developing talent strategy for a 12,000-person workforce, building the approach behind a 75 percent VP succession success rate, and launching the President’s Innovation Forum. At Zurich North America, he held a Future of Work role and designed the Skills Report Card, a talent intelligence framework combining internal people data with external labor market insight to guide enterprise talent decisions. As Director of Program Design and Consulting Projects at CAEL, he supported states, regions, systems, and industry partnerships. Josh began his career in local workforce development with the City of Springfield and the Ozark Region Workforce Development Board, where he managed a $3 million U.S. Department of Labor grant expanding healthcare career pathways.

Josh lives in the Missouri Ozarks with his wife, Jess, and their daughter, Greta. He holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Missouri State University.

Why are you in this work?

Early in my career I saw what a good job can do, not just for an individual, but for their family. A parent with stable, decent work increases the odds that their children will find similar success, and that effect carries for generations. I started my own education at a community college and have seen firsthand how many different routes people take to reach that kind of job. We build skills in many different ways, and our systems must make room for that. And ultimately it comes down to the employer side and whether the skills people are building are the ones companies will hire for. Across all of my work, the goal is to ensure that happens more often than not.

Why ESG?

ESG has deep expertise in K-12, higher education, and workforce. There aren’t many organizations that can say that, and the most pressing problems facing our communities usually touch all three areas. The people here have built their careers working to drive economic prosperity, and they each bring a unique and valuable perspective to that work. When those perspectives and skills come together, real solutions follow.