Ed “Kingfish” Lada, Jr. joined Goodwill Keystone Area as president and CEO in October 2021, bringing with him visionary leadership and a steadfast commitment to initiatives that advance sustainability. He also serves as Goodwill Keystone Area Foundation president and CEO.
From the outset, Ed embarked on creating a bold vision for Goodwill Keystone – one that charts a course for the organization's long-term sustainability and growth. Ed envisions an enterprise that not only thrives for the next 100 years but also paves the way for creating generational wealth. Central to this vision is leveraging the transformative power of work to uplift lives and bolster the prosperity of families served by Goodwill.
Buoyed by Goodwill’s mission of advancing sustainability in our communities, Ed’s tenure has been marked by several notable accomplishments. Among these is the development of a groundbreaking mobile learning lab designed to bring educational and skills training directly to individuals throughout Goodwill’s 22-county footprint. From digital literacy and financial wellness to job search and readiness, the Goodwill Learning Lab acts as a catalyst for transformational growth, ensuring individuals have access to vital resources wherever they may be. He also created the first research and development initiative within a Goodwill, launched the Women of Wealth program teaching entrepreneurship, financial literacy and artificial intelligence to underserved women, and has spearheaded historical growth resulting in a 32 percent increase in revenue in two years ($68 million to $92 million in annual revenue).
Ed has also fostered strategic collaborations to support Goodwill’s mission, including a partnership with Penn State University to sponsor EDSGN 100 – a program engaging 700 freshmen engineering students to devise automation and engineering solutions for Goodwill's retail operations. His commitment to knowledge-sharing extends across diverse realms, as evidenced by his involvement in panels and groups addressing crucial topics like artificial intelligence, advanced technologies and the future of work, sustainability, and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB).
Along with these accomplishments, Ed champions ways to help Goodwill Keystone be on the leading edge of workforce opportunities. By teaching skills that help integrate, implement and manage emerging technologies, Goodwill can offer people with barriers to employment a head start in an increasingly evolving technological world, advocating the augmentation – not replacement – of the human experience.
Before joining Goodwill Keystone, Ed served as president and CEO of Goodwill of Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas (MoKan) in Kansas City for nearly four years. Here, he led an historic financial turnaround for the organization and also launched a successful initiative to train those with barriers to employment in cutting-edge technologies. Ed joined MoKan Goodwill after serving nearly five years as vice president of contracts and facility management services for Goodwill of Southeastern Louisiana.
He currently serves on a number of advisory boards and committees, including but not limited to the Xavier University of New Orleans Business Advisory Board and the Penn State Harrisburg Business Advisory Board, and co-chair of the Goodwill Industries International Emerging Trends Think Tank comprised of Goodwill CEOs across North America.
Ed holds a master’s degree in public administration and ethical leadership from Marist College and a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Loyola University of New Orleans. He also earned executive certificates from Harvard Kennedy School and MIT Sloan School of Management in artificial intelligence, climate change and economics, and business dynamics, respectively. Before all of this, Ed started his college education at Delgado Community College in New Orleans.
