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Karen S. Carter is the chief operating officer of Dow Inc., a global materials science company with 2023 sales of approximately $45 billion.
Carter is a member of the Company’s Executive Committee, which sets strategic direction, defines priorities and establishes corporate policies for the enterprise. She has executive oversight for driving business and operational performance across the organization with a focus on strengthening customer engagement and relationships, accelerating the commercialization of Dow’s innovation pipeline, and enhancing the Company’s reliability and service to customers.
Carter also has strategic oversight of Dow’s business operating segments – Packaging & Specialty Plastics, Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure, and Performance Materials & Coatings – as well as the Integrated Supply Chain, Purchasing, Information Systems, and Commercial organizations.
Carter joined Dow in 1994 and has held a broad range of leadership positions in her more than 30-year career with Dow, including business operations, sales and marketing, and human resources. Her career features international experience in Asia Pacific and extensive global business leadership positions within Building and Construction, Polyethylene, Engineering Thermoplastics, Fabricated Products, Information Technology Equipment, and Consumer Electronics.
Most recently, Carter served as President of Dow’s Packaging & Specialty Plastics (P&SP) operating segment, one of the world’s largest suppliers of polyethylene resins and functional polymers with more than $23 billion in annual sales. Under her leadership, P&SP has delivered value growth through asset upgrades, capacity expansions, and improved reliability. In partnership with customers and brand owners, Carter has led the development of innovative solutions that are helping to enable a circular economy. This includes the launch of circular product lines, such as REVOLOOP™ Recycled Plastic Resins and INNATE™ Precision Packaging Resins, as well as the acquisition of Circulus, a mechanical recycler, and significant strategic partnerships to secure and scale circular feedstock supply.
Prior to leading P&SP, Carter served as Dow’s Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Inclusion Officer, where she successfully institutionalized a culture where all employees can grow and thrive, thereby fully contributing to Dow’s business strategy and long-term value growth. Carter continues to be an advocate for inclusion, diversity and equity by serving on Dow’s President’s Inclusion Council and as the executive sponsor of the Global African Affinity Network, Dow’s employee resource group representing colleagues of African heritage as well as allies.
Carter is on the board of directors for the Great Lakes Bay Region Boys and Girls Clubs of America. She is also on the board of directors for Southwire, a leading manufacturer of wire and cable used in the transmission and distribution of electricity, delivering power to millions of people around the world. Carter is chair of the Business Leaders Committee on the State of Michigan’s Black Leadership Advisory Council, a member of the Executive Leadership Council and chair of the Catalyst Board of Advisors.
Carter has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Howard University and a master’s degree in international business from DePaul University. She has been published in the Journal of the American Health Information Management Association and featured in Chemical Week, the Huffington Post, MORE Magazine, the Disrupt Yourself Podcast and The Future of Work Podcast. In 2018, Carter was named to Black Enterprise’s Top Executives in Diversity list and received Northwood University’s Distinguished Women Award. In 2019, she was named to Black Enterprise’s Most Powerful Women in Corporate America list. Since 2020 Carter has been recognized as one of the 100 Ethnic Minority Executives on the EMpower Ethnic Minority Role Model Lists supported by Yahoo! Finance. Most recently, Carter was inducted into The Kansas African American Museum Trailblazer Hall of Fame.