Charu Adesnik is the Executive Director of the Cisco Foundation, and Director of Social Innovation Investments at Cisco Systems, Inc.  In this capacity, she oversees the mission, vision, strategy, programs, and governance of the Foundation.  Charu also leads Cisco's strategic investments of cash, donations of Cisco technology, and advisory services to support NGOs that work with underserved and vulnerable communities in areas of Crisis Response, Education, Economic Empowerment, and Climate Regeneration.  Beyond this, Charu oversees execution of Cisco’s goal to positively impact 1 billion people by 2025.

Charu began her career at the World Bank, where she supported the development of the Bank’s country assistance strategies, and implemented technical assistance programs in East Asia and Pacific.  Prior to joining Cisco, she worked in the Financial Sector Development practice of Deloitte Consulting, where she developed sector level strategies and interventions, led client engagements, provided technical assistance on client engagements, managed diverse project teams, and oversaw relationships with key corporate and public sector clients in more than 25 countries, in every region of the world.  She has designed, executed and evaluated the impact of global initiatives across multiple disciplines, including financial services, economic empowerment, critical human needs, disaster response, education, and gender.