IESC Elects Wing Keith Board Chair, and Carole Wainaina and Mark Karns as Board Directors
Washington, DC—February 6, 2019–International Executive Service Corps (IESC) announces the election of Ms. Wing Keith as Board Chair, and Ms. Carole Wainaina and Mr. Mark Karns as Board Directors.
The Board elected Ms. Keith, who has served on IESC’s Board since 2010, as Chair effective August 1, 2018. Ms. Keith’s career has centered on finance and banking, including both the transaction and management sides of financial services and investment companies. Ms. Keith currently works as an independent investor, consultant, and strategic advisor to internet- and artificial intelligence (AI)-based start-up companies. She is the former chief operating officer of each of Crestview Advisors, LLC and Oak Hill Capital Management, Inc., both private equity firms. Previously, Ms. Keith was a senior vice president at Lehman Brothers Inc.; she developed Riggs National Bank’s Eastern European financial advisory business; and she was a vice president at Bankers Trust Co., where she specialized in distressed companies and leveraged buyout (LBO) lending. Ms. Keith graduated from Harvard College with a degree magna cum laude.
Ms. Wainaina was elected to join IESC’s Board as a Director in January 2019. A citizen of Kenya, Ms. Wainaina is a well-respected senior executive with global experience in the private and public sectors at senior levels, including strategy formulation, leading multi-disciplinary teams, and driving organizational transformation. As Chief Operating Officer of Africa50, the pan-African infrastructure investment platform capitalized by the African Development Bank, 27 African countries, and two African Central Banks, she leads a multi-disciplinary team across Investor Relations, Strategy, Communications, Human Resources, Administration as well as Environmental, Social and Governance. Before joining Africa50, she served as the Assistant Secretary General for Human Resources of the United Nations, and prior to that held senior positions for more than two decades at multinational corporations in Turkey, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Kenya.
Mr. Karns was also elected to join IESC’s Board as a Director in January 2019. Mr. Karns was a successful leader at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of State for four decades. He brings wide experience in emerging and frontier markets in South Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. Most recently, Mr. Karns served for the past seven years as USAID’s Multi-Sector Advisor to the Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs. In addition to Mr. Karns’ extensive US government and private sector development experience, he worked on Wall Street as a securities analyst and started his career working in several private equity partnerships. He has an M.B.A. in Corporate Finance and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate with a B.A. in Mathematics and Japanese from Ohio State University where he was a National Defense Fellow. He also holds the global Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
IESC was founded in 1964 by a group of American business leaders, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists —chiefly David Rockefeller—who believed that businesses are the engines that drive economic growth and innovation, and that supporting them can lift countries out of poverty. IESC, a Washington, DC based non-profit, applies private sector solutions around the world to improve standards of living, create and preserve jobs, and help enterprises grow. IESC leaves behind sustainable businesses, robust institutions, knowledgeable and skilled people, and thriving communities.
