Carrie Santos is a strategic consultant and internationally recognized nonprofit leader with 25 years of experience across international development, humanitarian relief, and entrepreneurial networks. Her consulting firm specializes in strategic planning, structured facilitation, and organizational alignment for purpose-driven organizations around the world.
Carrie has overseen global programs with annual budgets of over $120 million and led teams across more than sixty countries. As CEO of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), she guided a global network of 17,000 business founders through a digital and strategic transformation—replacing dozens of disconnected spreadsheets with data-driven decision making, doubling annual revenue to $60 million, and raising global participation from 48% to 75%. She championed EO’s most inspiring initiative, the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, featured in the Disney+ documentary Own the Room, and EO’s peer support model was featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review for helping leaders in emerging markets scale their enterprises.
Previously, Carrie served in senior leadership roles at the American Red Cross, where she launched first aid smartphone apps in 60 countries, pioneered disaster preparedness technologies in Kenya and South Africa, and led multi-million-dollar responses to the Haiti earthquake, Typhoon Haiyan, and the Nepal earthquake. At the U.S. State Department, she directed over $150 million in humanitarian assistance for armed conflict victims assisted by the Red Cross and was named a Colin Powell Fellow.
Carrie currently serves on the Boards of the Global AI Council and the Ukrainian NGO, Women’s Voice in Action. She has completed IMD’s High Performance Board training and is experienced in global governance and compliance in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Fluent in Polish and experienced across Central and Eastern Europe, Carrie earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, where she researched decentralized civil society organizations in the transitions from communism. She is a Fulbright Scholar, a frequent public speaker and podcast guest, and a passionate advocate for people-centered leadership that produces results.