Carrie Freeman is Co-CEO of SecondMuse, an impact and innovation company that builds resilient economies. Since 2012, she has been steering the global company’s approach to finding and nurturing innovators dedicated to social and environmental good, and building supportive ecosystems around them. Its mission aligns with Carrie’s fundamental belief in the infinite capacity for humans to learn and grow, and the potential for inclusive markets and businesses to massively scale positive change.
Under Carrie’s leadership, SecondMuse has run programs that define inspiring visions, build lasting businesses and unite people across the globe. Over the last decade, they’ve designed and implemented programs on 7 continents with 600+ organizations such as NASA, The World Bank, and Nike. Carrie’s experiences at SecondMuse have strengthened her conviction that deep, sustained collaboration between governments, businesses, and the communities in which they operate, fosters innovation.
Before joining SecondMuse, Carrie worked for 15 years at Intel, where she honed her business and leadership experience in a range of management positions. In her most recent role there as Director of Sustainable Business Innovation, she pioneered strategies around a corporate impact investing fund and became deeply involved in, and impassioned by, technology market solutions to global sustainability problems.
In life and work, Carrie is drawn to challenges. She credits her guiding belief in the capacity of the human spirit to experiences that tested her physical and mental limits: rafting one of the most challenging rivers in the world; climbing out of a canyon during a thunderstorm; standing steadfast, time and again, before skeptical gazes as the only woman in a boardroom. Her outdoor adventures have also expanded her view of capital, beyond financial assets, to include the environment and human potential — both of which provide the world immense, often untapped or underappreciated value.
Throughout her life and career, she has mentored and advocated for women, encouraging them to take risks and to see the value in their unique perspectives and experiences. She has also promoted the true inclusion of diverse views and experiences in the businesses and departments she has been fortunate enough to lead.
She has held numerous advisory and board positions that span the for-profit, non-profit, public and philanthropic sectors, including the U.S. EPA, Water Innovations Alliance, the Technology Venture Corporation, Packard Foundation, World Economic Forum, the Nature Conservancy, the Permaculture Credit Union, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, World Policy Institute, LAUNCH, the government of Costa Rica and several cross-industry consortia.
Carrie has undergraduate degrees from New Mexico State University and an MBA from the University of New Mexico.
Connect with Carrie on LinkedIn.
