Katherine is Director of FinTech4Good and the Executive Director Blockchain Labs for Open Collaboration (BLOC) a leading European digital infrastructure platform working with key international partners on inclusive critical infrastructure energy, finance, transport and sustainable development.

Her early career was as a Canadian diplomat serving for nearly ten years on key postings and issues including International Trade, Technology Transfer, Human Security (Landmines, Blood Diamonds and Child Soldiers) and Climate Change. She quit the foreign service in 2004 due to the withdrawal of government support for these programs. Leaving her diplomatic passport, her German Shepard, and her Thirties behind, she moved to Switzerland to start a family. She struggled to restart a career in her forties and worked in various capacities at universities, international organizations and NGOs and eventually helped develop a number of firsts, including the first “Green” Entrepreneurship Course at ETHZ (the university where Einstein studied and taught), a STEM program for Girls, Switzerland’s first Zero Emission Technical Park, the first Microfinance Bank in Namibia, and Ashoka’s first Swiss Changemaker program.

She then became Development Lead for Europe’s largest innovation and entrepreneurship initiative Climate-KIC, spearheading cross-sectoral partnerships, educational and accelerator programs across the continent and internationally, for one of its four themes. She was part of a team that brought in leading corporate, educational, government and NGO partners, incubated 900 startups (including 13 nominated for Forbes 30 Under 30 this year alone), and brought in significant investment and funding. While with the KIC, she began a personal project developing a conceptual framework for Blockchain and was invited by the World Bank to serve on a panel where she met the co-founders of BLOC.

Katherine moved to Washington DC in August 2017, and aside from her dual role with two dynamic organizations, continues to serve as an advisor to startups, companies, international organizations and governments. Katherine has also made significant contributions to television, film, publications and cultural programming, but whenever possible, she heads back to the Canadian North to share outdoor adventures and her Métis heritage with her kids.

Twitter @foster_change

linkedin.com/in/katherinefoster fosterkat@gmail.com