Karen Carter — chief inclusion officer at DowDuPont Inc.'s Dow Chemical unit — has been named to the advisory board of Catalyst, a nonprofit group promoting inclusion of women in the workplace.
In her role with Catalyst, Carter "will work across industries to assess and advance best practices for the advancement of female talent from premier employers across multiple sectors," officials said in an Oct. 5 news release.
Dow President and Chief Operating Officer Jim Fitterling said in the release that Carter's appointment to the catalyst board "is both recognition of her outstanding ability to influence change and the strength of her commitment to build inclusive work environments where all employees thrive."
As a member of the board of advisers, Carter will help further Catalyst's mission of offering businesses strategic advice and counsel on topics related to the advancement of women. She will join senior executives on the advisory board from leading companies including Coca-Cola Co., IBM Corp. and Bloomberg LP — all of which are active members.
"Dow and Catalyst are aligned in their missions to accelerate progress for women in the workplace," Carter said in the release. "I'm honored to be a member of the Board of Advisors, to both give and gain valuable insights that can advance inclusion efforts at Dow and elsewhere."
Catalyst was founded in 1962 and is a leading nonprofit in accelerating progress for women through workplace inclusion. It has operations in the U.S., Canada, India, Australia and Japan, and more than 800 supporting organizations. Dow has been a member of Catalyst since the mid-1990s.
Carter, a 23-year Dow veteran, was named in July as the firm's first chief inclusion officer. The role was created to strengthen the integration of diversity and inclusion with business strategy and results. Carter has direct accountability to Fitterling and to Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris.
Carter previously led Dow's North America packaging & specialty plastics unit and held strategic business leadership roles in the firm's building and construction and polypropylene licensing and catalyst businesses as well.
In her previous role, Carter in August 2016 told Plastics News that new polyethylene capacity from Dow and other suppliers "is really about population growth. …A rising middle class around the world is increasing demand for packaging."
"This is a historic time in the industry," she added. "We're glad to be part of it."
On Aug. 31, Dow merged with DuPont Co. — another global plastics and chemicals giant — to form DowDuPont. The two firms had combined sales of $72 billion in 2016.
