Kate Curran

Kate is the Founder & CEO of School the World, an international education non-profit serving 12,590 children in rural Central America. Kate started School the World after losing 3 family members in 6 months and leaving a sterling legal career at General Electric for a year-long sabbatical to travel the world. It was the 12 children sharing one pencil in a Tanzanian classroom, the young children working under the hot Andes sun and the children crossing through crocodile infested waters to get to school in a Zambian village who moved her to action. Kate is the author of School the World’s education strategy, a strategy that has earned praise from US AID, Ministers of Education and leading education experts.

Additionally, Kate is building an interconnected world of future change makers through School the World’s high school student service learning program. High School students from the United States fundraise to cover the cost of the trip as well as the build of the school & playground and one year of parent & teacher programming. During their Winter, Spring or Summer break they travel to the rural community to finish the construction of the school & playground, meet the children they are giving the gift of education to and gain first-hand knowledge of how the power of education can change the world and lift children and their families out of poverty. Since launching in 2013, nearly 900 high school students, known as World Changers, have traveled with School the World, with an average return rate of 35%.

While at G.E., Kate was recognized as a change agent and thoughtful advocate for responsible business practices, where she was responsible for shaping public policy on all consumer finance matters in the U.S. and Latin America. She shaped deals and products with an eye toward economic fairness, won a significant investment for services to victims of identity theft, persuaded the unit’s chief executive to increase their bank’s community reinvestment obligation from $5,000,000 to $100,000,000 in one year and brokered an innovative public private partnership to revitalize CT’s downtrodden Bridgeport. G.E. recognized these accomplishments with multiple awards for legal excellence & outstanding contributions to the business.

Most recently, Kate was honored as one of Forbes’ 50 Over 50: Women Leading The Way In Impact recipients.