Sonal Shah

Sonal Shah serves as interim executive vice president for worldwide network advancement at United Way. She leads the US and international network teams to work with local United Ways to help deliver the greatest impact for UWW’s communities. She also serves on the UWW Executive Leadership Team.

Shah is a global leader on social impact and innovation. She has started and led social impact efforts in academia, government, and the private and philanthropy sectors for more than 25 years.

Most recently she founded and led The Asian American Foundation, raising over US$1 billion, the largest philanthropic effort serving the Asian American community.

Before TAAF, she started and led Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation for over 7 years, training students on social impact and leading research on different models of social innovation.

In the Obama Administration, she served as deputy assistant to the president and director of the Office of Social Innovation at the White House, leading the efforts across government to introduce social innovation, including financial innovation, impact metrics, and the role of technology.

In the private sector, she led the Global Development Initiatives at Google focused on impact investing and technology for social impact. At Goldman Sachs, she developed and implemented the firm’s environmental strategy.

Shah also has significant experience working internationally as an economist at the Department of Treasury, setting up the central bank in Bosnia, working for post-conflict reconstruction in Kosovo, and implementing poverty reduction strategies in Africa. She also served as the chief of operations for the Center for Global Development.

Shah serves on the boards of Oxfam America, the UBS Optimus Foundation, The Century Foundation, and National Democratic Institute. She also serves as an adviser to Pinterest and Apollo Global Management. She is a research professor at Georgetown University. In 2019-20, she served as the national policy director for Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign.

Role at the Dialogue: Event Speaker