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Karen Kearney currently serves as Treasurer for Stanford University, California, where she is responsible for the university’s capital markets strategy, debt portfolio and working capital management, as well as its global subsidiaries. She has spent over 20 years at Stanford in various financial roles, with experience in treasury, financial reporting, systems, tax, audit, compliance, and global operations. She serves as a Director or Officer on a number of subsidiary Boards, including in China, Chile, India, South Korea, South Africa.
In 2021, she led the issuance of the first ever dual-verified ESG bond in higher education, leveraging Stanford University’s long-standing commitment to environmental and social sustainability. The bond was second party verified for both CBI’s Climate Bond verification and ICMA Sustainability certified.
Previous Roles
Ms Kearney has spent over 30 years in mission-focused non-profit organizations, including as CFO of the iconic San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as well as consulting on strategic planning for various non-profits. Her professional training was with Pricewaterhouse (Coopers), where she served Chartered Accountant articles.
She holds a BA, MA from the University of Cambridge, in Geography.
She is thrilled to leverage her academic training, non-profit finance, organizational and capital markets experience for the benefit of the Climate Bonds Initiative, contributing to its foundational work in the evolution of sustainability finance.