Kara Gustafson is a Sustainability and Impact executive who has stewarded more than $2 billion in philanthropic investments, with over two decades of leadership in corporate responsibility, philanthropy, sustainability, and community engagement. She has designed and led high-impact global initiatives across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to drive economic growth and inclusive opportunity. Kara currently serves as President of the RBC Foundation USA. Previously, she was Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Finance Leaders Fellowship, where she relaunched the program from the pandemic, launched its most diverse class to date, and co-founded the FLF-ESG Impact Exchange, a forum on sustainable finance for senior leaders. She spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs in leadership roles across Corporate Engagement and the firm’s Impact Investing business. She was a founding team member of Goldman Sachs’ flagship global philanthropic programs—10,000 Women and 10,000 Small Businesses—scaling them into industry-leading initiatives that continue to drive economic growth, inclusion and opportunity today. Following her time at Goldman, Kara founded Palais Impact Advisors, advising Fortune 500 and high-growth companies on impact strategy. She also led Community Impact at SoulCycle, integrating social purpose into brand engagement. Kara has spoken at the Fortune Most Powerful Women NextGen, Concordia, and the Aspen Institute. In 2019 Kara began hosting and producing “Impact Studies with Kara Gustafson,” a leading social impact interview video series and the first of its kind. 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 of Finpublica, and previously served on the board of Paid Leave for the United States. She holds a BA in English from Fairfield University.