Originally from Hawaii, Sarah Takatani was hired by IBM in 1997 as a software engineer and coded IBM’s first e-commerce website. In 1999, she moved into a diversity program manager role to stand up IBM’s first diversity councils and employee affinity groups. Following that role, she quickly became a change agent integrating technology and business and one of IBM’s youngest female executives, leading 25,000 team members, managing seven global labs, and driving $1.7 billion in revenue.
In 2014, she made a career decision to move to nonprofit and transform the $860 million Girl Scout Cookie Program – taking it digital! The launch of “Digital Cookie” garnered 4 billion media impressions with Sarah quoted in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and more, as well as recognitions that included a place in Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Nonprofits. Following Girl Scouts, Sarah led multiple non-profit transformations as CIO, including Year Up to empower young adults to reach their potential through careers and higher education, and Save the Children to make a difference in over 197 million children’s lives per year across 100+ countries. During this time, she was recognized as CIO of the Year by InspireCIO for human- centered design and data-driven outcomes.
Sarah is passionate about delivering social impact at scale and was honored with a U.S. Congressional Award for her work with historically marginalized youth. In October 2024, Sarah took the next step in this journey and joined the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as VP of Technology
& Integrated Services to apply her 25+ years of expertise in business transformation, digital innovation, and operational integration to support children, families, and communities in creating conditions that enable vulnerable children to succeed as individuals and as contributors to the
larger community.
Sarah earned her MBA from Cornell University, BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Gold Award from Girl Scouts of the USA. She regularly serves as a motivational keynote speaker and on multiple governing boards, including United Nations Association, NetHope, Polaris, and NextGen Thriving. Additionally, she is an entrepreneur, having established a salsa dance studio after retiring as a professional salsa dancer and founded a performing arts coffee house as a creative gathering place for local artists of all ages. At home, she is a loving mother to three daughters and the proud fiancée of a dedicated first responder firefighter.