Kara Gustafson brings over two decades of experience in Sustainable Corporate Responsibility, Philanthropy, ESG, DEI, and Community Engagement. Kara has created and led best-in-class global impact initiatives across a $2 billion portfolio of programs that have driven transformative results in the public, private and non-profit sectors through her work as an impact executive at Goldman Sachs, the Aspen Institute, and SoulCycle. Most recently, Kara served as the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Finance Leaders Fellowship where she was responsible for the strategic direction and day-to-day management of the Fellowship. During her tenure she relaunched the Fellowship and created its most diverse class to-date. She co-founded the Aspen Institute FLF-ESG Impact Exchange, a forum for dialogue and action on ESG-related issues for senior finance executives. Prior to the Aspen Institute, Kara founded Palais Impact Advisors, a social impact strategic advisory firm to Fortune 500 and late-stage growth companies. Before that she served as Head of Community Impact at SoulCycle. Kara previously spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs where she held several leadership roles, including being a founding member of the team who launched and scaled its signature philanthropic initiatives – 10,000 Women and 10,000 Small Businesses – to drive economic growth, inclusion and opportunity through the firm’s Impact Investing Business and Corporate Engagement programs. Kara is a frequent speaker on topics related to stakeholder capitalism and has appeared at forums hosted by World Economic Forum, Fortune Most Powerful Women NextGen Summit, Concordia, the Aspen Institute, and the U.S. Department of State. In 2019 Kara began hosting and producing “Impact Studies with Kara Gustafson,” a leading social impact interview video series. Kara currently serves as Chair of the Dolan School of Business Management Program’s Advisory Council at Fairfield University. She is a founding Board Member and Advisor at Finpublica, a new non-profit focused on empowering a community of sustainable finance leaders to advance ESG policies and practices. She served as a Director on the board of Paid Leave for the United States, which campaigned to win paid family and medical leave for every working person in the U.S. Kara earned a BA in English from Fairfield University.