As the new Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s Finance Leaders Fellowship, Kara Gustafson is mobilizing a global community of finance industry leaders for a journey that ignites their passion and directs their skills and talents toward solving some of society’s most complex challenges. Fellows include people like the CEO of S&P Dow Jones Indices, CFO of General Mills, a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, the recently nominated Director of the CyberSecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency for the White House, and the Head of Enforcement at the New York Stock Exchange – just to name a few.
So, what does the finance industry – a sector often knocked for causing harm and distrust – and the leaders of it, have to do with catalyzing positive social change? Kara says: a lot. And she knows first hand what the potential is as a member of the founding team of Goldman Sachs’ corporate philanthropy work: A role she held for fifteen years that transformed the way the big banks made philanthropic investments. On this episode of the Value of Leadership, Kara shares