Katherine Foster
Katherine Foster is currently the Social Alpha Foundation Fellow, an Advisor at Open Earth Foundation US, a member of the European Securities and Market Authority Financial Innovation Standing Committee, the Blockchain Forum and Observatory, an advisor to Evercity.io a lead lead consultant on the UN Task Force Dialogue on BigFintech impacts on SDGs. A former Canadian Diplomat specialising in human security and climate change (including as Canadian Representative in Washington DC)
Katherine has been spearheading innovation at the nexus of technology, policy, climate change and sustainable development for +25 years. Katherine moved to Switzerland in 2004 where she advised on and led numerous innovation initiatives. In in her leadership roles with the EU Climate-KIC which accelerated 1000 startups and 300 cross-sectoral initiatives, Katherine spearheaded key programs and partnerships. She has also served as a co-founder (leading the Startup BLOC to the 2018 MIT Solve Fellowship) and an advisor for global impact initiatives including the UNDP Accelerate2030 and the World Bank’s Blockchain Carbon Markets Framework. In her recent role as Chief Intelligence Officer of the Green Digital Finance Alliance (UNEP – Ant Financial NGO) Katherine focused on fintech for sustainable finance and emerging technology for climate and SDGs with the GDFA serving as Knowledge Partner and Sherpa to the UN Secretary General Task Force on Digital Finance for the SDGs.