Sasha Calder
Founder
Resilience
Sasha Calder is the Founder of Resilience, a strategic advisory firm that helps executives, investors, and founders navigate operational risk, growth strategy, and long-range value creation. With a background in finance, anthropology, and complex systems, Sasha operates where most leaders need the most clarity: in the intersection of risk, execution, and high-stakes decision-making.
She has managed a $100M+ impact fund, advised on manufacturing and supply chain strategy across both consumer and industrial sectors, and held senior roles inside fast-scaling startups and Fortune 500s. As former Head of Impact at Geno, she led the company’s sustainability, government affairs, corporate communications, and product marketing functions—helping reposition the biotech giant for global influence.
Her portfolio includes co-leading breakthrough campaigns with lululemon, supporting Hyosung’s $1B investment to transition from fossil-based to planet-based spandex, and leading impact negotiations behind Future Origins, a first-of-its-kind partnership between Unilever, Kao, and L'Oréal to scale biotechnology in beauty and personal care.
A Systems Thinker From the Start: Sasha’s journey began with studies in cultural anthropology and finance, an unusual but powerful combination that continues to shape how she sees the world. Her education equipped her to analyze systems from both a behavioral and economic perspective—understanding not just what decisions are made, but why, and with what consequences.
This unique lens allowed her to recognize gaps in the traditional business model—especially when it came to social impact, environmental risk, and stakeholder trust. Early in her career, she worked in impact investing and later in risk strategy for private equity and brands. These experiences showed her how risks often go unnoticed until they escalate, and how addressing them early can create more resilient companies and communities.
Turning Risk Into Insight: While managing a large-scale impact fund, Sasha realized that many risk models were reactive rather than predictive. Too often, companies treated risk management as a checklist, rather than a tool for growth and accountability. She saw the need for a more dynamic and values-driven approach, one that could help leaders confront uncertainty while staying grounded in purpose.
That insight led to the founding of Resilience, a company built to help C-suite leaders anticipate and navigate systemic risk in a changing world. By combining technology, strategic foresight, and ethical design principles, Resilience enables organizations to make better, faster decisions—without compromising their values.
Shaping a New Standard of Leadership: Throughout her career, Sasha has navigated complex power dynamics and traditional leadership structures. Rather than adopt the status quo, she’s chosen to model a different approach, one centered on curiosity, inclusion, and accountability. Her work is grounded in the belief that leadership is not just about making decisions, but about creating conditions where others can thrive.
Sasha helps organizations design systems that are built to survive and thrive. She encourages leaders to ask better questions, consider long-term consequences, and make better data-driven and dimensional decisions. This human-centered approach has proven critical in industries where change is constant and trust is hard-earned.
Building Tools That Empower Ethical Action: Sasha is often brought in when something’s at risk: slipping margins, supply disruption, strategy drift, or cross-functional misalignment. Her role is to cut through noise, isolate root causes, and move fast to build systems that stick. She’s built a reputation as a strategist with execution in her DNA—trusted by PE firms, global brands, and founders alike to help them see clearly and act decisively when the stakes are high.
Sasha’s most recent venture is the development of a tool designed to support real-time decision-making. This AI-powered operating system gives leaders visibility into where risk is emerging across their organization and provides frameworks to take proactive steps aligned with their goals and values. By combining technology with decades of strategic insight, Sasha is building tools that bridge intention and action, helping businesses shift from reactive to resilient.
Leading the Way for Future Women in Leadership: Sasha’s story is a powerful reminder that leadership rooted in integrity and self-awareness is not only possible, it’s essential. Her path reflects the power of blending disciplines, listening deeply, and designing systems that prioritize people and the planet. She is part of a new generation of leaders proving that bold, ethical leadership isn’t just good for business, it’s what the future demands.
Advice for Women in Chemicals: Sasha’s advice is rooted in courage, connection, and a commitment to staying in the work—especially when the path is uncertain. You don’t need all the answers to lead; you just need to keep showing up with clarity, care, and conviction.
In industries built on complexity and risk, optimism isn’t fluff—it’s a form of moral courage. Believing things can change—and that your voice matters in shaping that change—is both strategic and necessary.
She also emphasizes the importance of building meaningful relationships and strong networks. In spaces where women are underrepresented, connection becomes a force multiplier—and a serious advantage.
More than anything, Sasha sees leadership as a practice. She’s still learning too. And that, she believes, is what makes the work worth doing.
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