Kat O’Brien is currently Vice President of Corporate Engagement for the NGO Emergent, which coordinates the LEAF Coalition, a public-private collaboration to stop tropical deforestation.
Kat moved to Spain in 2022, initially as Chief Partnerships Officer for the climate tech startup ClimateTrade in Valencia. Prior to that, she had been working in New York City, most recently as Director of Product Management at Mastercard, where she focused on Go To Market activation and commercialization for a new product titled Bill Pay Exchange. She has been working in the fintech space since 2015, first at Samsung Pay and then at the Barcelona startup Polaroo. Kat also previously worked in the sports industry, beginning her career as a sports writer and later working at Real Madrid and ESPN in strategy and operations.
Kat has an MBA from The Wharton School, an MA from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from the University of Notre Dame. Originally from Davenport, Iowa, she currently lives in Barcelona, Spain.
