Karen S. Carter

Karen S. Carter is President of Dow’s Packaging & Specialty Plastics (P&SP) business operating segment, which consists of the Packaging and Specialty Plastics commercial business and Olefins, Aromatics & Alternatives (OAA) hydrocarbons business.

With annual sales of more than $28 Billion, P&SP is widely recognized as the world’s largest materials suppliers of polyethylene resins and functional polymers used in a wide variety of applications for key growth markets like food packaging, supply chain packaging, health and hygiene, infrastructure, and consumer goods. Built on a solid foundation of operational discipline with versatile process technology, P&SP consistently ranks as a top quartile performer amongst its industry peers, delivering disruptive, award-winning innovation that meets customers’ expectations on performance and sustainability. P&SP’s products and solutions can enable a circular economy at lower carbon impact. Carter is responsible for transforming P&SP in alignment with Dow’s sustainability goals and targets.

Carter has served in a progression of roles at Dow since beginning her career with the Company in 1993, including most recently as their Chief Human Resources Officer and first Chief Inclusion Officer, where she successfully institutionalized inclusion and diversity as key drivers for long-term growth.

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 was recently appointed as the Chair of the Business Leaders Committee on the State of Michigan’s Black Leadership Advisory Council. She is also 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. Carter has been published in the Journal of the American Health Information Management Association and featured in Chemical Week, the Huffington Post, MORE Magazine, and the Disrupt Yourself Podcast and The Future of Work Podcast. In 2014, Carter was named to the prestigious Forty Women to Watch Over 40 list for her innovative leadership contributions. In 2018, she was named to Black Enterprise’s Top Executives in Diversity list and received Northwood University’s Distinguished Women Award. In 2019, Carter was named to Black Enterprise’s Most Powerful Women in Corporate America list. In 2020 and 2022, Carter was recognized as one of the 100 Ethnic Minority Executives on the EMpower Ethnic Minority Role Model Lists supported by Yahoo Finance.