Susan Colby

Bio

Susan Colby is the CEO and Co-founder of Imagine Worldwide. Imagine will empower every child, everywhere to build the literacy and numeracy skills they need to achieve their full potential. More than 250 million children and youth worldwide do not have access to school. And hundreds of millions more go to school but never learn to read or write. Imagine will demonstrate that children, with personalized technology in their hands, can become literate and numerate with little to no adult instruction.

Prior to founding Imagine, Susan was a partner in McKinsey & Company’s San Francisco office leading the firm’s North American Education Practice, where she worked with clients in the social, public, and private sectors. Previously, Susan was the Chief Executive Officer at Stupski Foundation. She was also a founding partner of the Bridgespan Group and led their work in K-12 education and philanthropic strategy for more than a decade.  Susan also served as Co-President of the Sustainable Development Sector at Monsanto where she developed and led economically, environmentally and socially viable businesses in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Earlier in her career, in her first stint at McKinsey, Susan worked in a variety of industries and co-founded the North American Environment Practice.

 Susan is a co-author of several major articles on strategy, philanthropy and education, including “Galvanizing Philanthropy” (Harvard Business Review) and “Zeroing in on Impact” (Stanford Social Innovation Review). She has addressed major convenings on topics of strategy, philanthropy, gender, and education. Susan is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow (Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education). She currently serves on the board of CODE2040 and the advisory board for the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford. She is a Lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Graduate School of Education. Susan began her career at Bain & Company.

Susan earned an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a BA from American University.

Academic Degrees

• MBA, Stanford GSB
• BA, American University

Academic Appointments

• Lecturer, Stanford GSB, 2015-present
• Lecturer, Stanford GSE, 2016-present

Professional Experience

• CEO and Co-founder, Imagine Worldwide
• Partner, McKinsey & Company
• CEO, Stupski Foundation
• President, Sustainable Development Sector, Monsanto
• Bain & Company

Teaching

Degree Courses

2017-18

GSBGEN 377: Leadership & Diversity: Topics from Education

This course will explore the critical role diversity plays in successful organizations and challenge students to develop their own brand of leadership, learning from leaders in education who have grappled with these challenges. As impact-oriented...

2016-17

GSBGEN 377: Diverse Leadership as an Imperative for Impact - Lessons from Education

Our society implicitly prizes a particular approach to leadership - but today''s cross-sectoral, impact-oriented leader cannot afford to be restricted to a single approach. If we aspire to address challenges across social, economic, and political...