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Christina Sass
Unleashing the potential of young people on a global scale as President & CEO @IYF. Mission-driven leader, founder & Impact Investor. Co-founder for life @Andela. #TIA
Christina Sass is the President and CEO of the International Youth Foundation (IYF), an organization dedicated to empowering young people globally through education, employment, and leadership initiatives. Under her leadership, IYF focuses on creating pathways for youth to achieve their potential and contribute to their communities.
Professional Background::
- Andela: Christina co-founded Andela, a company that trains software developers in Africa and connects them with global employers. She served as President from August 2017 to November 2022 and was instrumental in scaling the organization, which has selected top talent from over 150,000 applicants across the continent.1
- Advisory Roles: She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on several advisory councils, including at NYU Stern School of Business. These roles reflect her commitment to fostering collaboration between various stakeholders in education and employment sectors.1
Education:: Christina holds a degree from Tufts University, where she developed a strong foundation for her career in international development and youth empowerment.1
Her work emphasizes the importance of creating sustainable opportunities for young people, enabling them to thrive in an increasingly competitive global economy.
Highlights
I am thrilled to announce that I have accepted the position of President and CEO of the International Youth Foundation (IYF) effective June 1, 2024. This is truly a great honor and a privilege for me because the IYF’s mission aligns so uniquely with my life-long commitment to, and long-standing mission of, unleashing the potential of young people on a global scale.
After getting to know the IYF Board and team, and hearing that they wanted an entrepreneurial leader who would help meet this moment for youth worldwide, I was hooked. Lucky for me, they were too. The IYF has a remarkable history of impact:
-34 years of operational experience. -Work in 182 countries with 615 local partners. -7M young people served in person to date, and another 6.3M assisted online. -A focus on finding the solutions that work with the best local partners and scaling them.
As many of you know, we are again witnessing a massive shift in the world of work with both daunting challenges and huge opportunities. I am humbled by the talent I’ve found within IYF and I am incredibly motivated to work along side them to do even more: To harness the power of AI for job creation, not job decimation, to train and deploy youth into ‘green jobs,’ and to unlock talent through the development of life skills and industry-specific training.
Those of you who know me well know that scalable youth employment is the north star that has always inspired and motivated me. I’ve had the privilege to work on this issue my entire career, including as a co-founder of Andela, which has now launched thousands of career paths for young technologists starting in 6 countries in Africa and now in over 130 countries!
In the past two years, I’ve gotten to work side by side with my coach, mentor and friend Jeff Hunter and the extraordinary team at Talentism in building Dive In Labs, a firm that both invests in and gives extensive coaching to social impact-focused founders building scalable workforce development companies. We are already seeing the effectiveness of our model and I am excited that our work will continue with me moving into an investment committee and active advisor role.
I particularly want to thank my Andela family, my Dive In and Talentism colleagues and the IYF team and Board for their support. I will call them out by name below.
If you’re thinking: How can I help? How can I get involved? Thank you and YES you can! In a comment below I will share 4 ways you can help, including sharing this message.
At IYF, we know that the best ideas and solutions come from youth and from the communities we serve. I’ll be traveling to connect directly with youth and potential partners, to listen, learn and partner to better serve global youth together. Please reach out if you are interested in learning more about IYF or if you have ideas as I embark on this next chapter.
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