Sandra (Sandy) Carter

An American business executive, a recognized leader in social business, influential speaker, and best-selling author, Sandra (Sandy) Carter served as IBM's worldwide General Manager, Ecosystem Development and Social Business and was one of the key leaders responsible for setting the direction for IBM's Social Business initiative. Most recently, NAFE named her a "Social Media Star" and "Woman of Excellence."

Growing up, she dreamed of being a doctor or veterinarian. When she started college, Carter pursued a medical career, but one day during her sophomore year at Duke University, that ambition was stopped cold. "It turns out that I'm allergic to anesthetic," she says. With the help of a professor, she was introduced to a faculty member in the computer-science department who was using computers rather than animals to test cosmetic ingredients. A new path opened up for her. "I fell in love with technology and the power that it brought to the medical field," she says. "I felt really empowered that IT has so much potential to help different customers in different ways."

That feeling of empowerment served her well the following summer when she applied twice for an internship at IBM and was turned down both times. Determined to work at IBM, Carter applied a third time but handled her application a bit differently. This time she wrote it like a Pascal computer program: "If you want a great person, then do this." She sent it to the head of HR, who realized she had the kind of creativity that would make a difference and hired her.

For her internship, she was charged with training the HR department about computers. "At the time, many people didn't know how to use PCs, as they were trained on 3270s and all this green-screen stuff," she says. Her mission was to train the department in an innovative way, as the HR employees weren't technologists. She succeeded.

Since her early days, Carter had an interest in Science, Math, and Engineering, which started from winning a Science Fair project on automating solar energy. After graduating from Duke University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Math and Computer Science, she explored her options, including pursuing computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and applying to the business schools at Stanford and Harvard universities and the University of Pennsylvania. During her interview at Harvard, two professors won her over. They believed their program would not only let her increase her knowledge of technology, but also teach her how to manage the development of it, communicate it, and use it in the general public. She graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA (Managing Technology & Marketing).

She was fluent in eight programming languages and received a patent for co-developing a methodology and tool to help customers create a technology deployment path in automation of their IT processes. Carter joined IBM in 1989 as a leader of the small business focus at IBM, taking on roles developing markets around beauty care automation, banking, and automotive solutions. Her ability to understand and envision business trends and apply them to the IT industry was soon recognized by IBM's leadership.

She served as Vice President, Social Business and Collaboration Solutions Sales and Evangelism, where she was responsible for setting the direction for IBM's Social Business initiative, working with companies that were becoming Social Businesses, and serving as the evangelist for the concept and best practices around Social Business. Prior to that position, Carter was VP, Software Business Partners and Midmarket, where she was responsible for IBM's worldwide software ecosystem initiatives. In this role, she created the SVP program, a best-of-class industry partnership initiative, and created Ready for and Powered by for Partners. She won recognition from VAR Business, CRN Channel Champions, Xchange Excellence, and Forrester ISV Partner Program for IBM's Business Partner program.

She also served as VP, SOA, BPM and WebSphere Strategy, Channels and Marketing, where she drove IBM's Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) marketing efforts to achieve 70% market share for SOA, and where IBM WebSphere became a market leader, receiving more than 34 industry awards. Carter created a methodology for the creation of new markets, documented in the book "The New Language of Marketing 2.0: How to Use ANGELS to Energize Your Market." Fast Company named her one of the most influential women in technology, and Everything Channels CRN magazine named her one of the most powerful 100 women in channels in 2009 and 2010.

She was known for her innovative Marketing 2.0 approach and led the IBM brand to win over 14 industry marketing awards. Carter authored three books — "The New Language of Business: SOA & Web 2.0," which won the Platinum MarCom Award in 2008; "The New Language of Marketing 2.0: Social Media," which won the Silver MarketingSherpa award in 2009; and the bestselling "Get Bold" in 2011, where her AGENDA approach was praised by business leaders. Her numerous industry awards included "Brand Leader of the Year" from the World Brand Congress, "Top 10 in Social Media" from Altimeter Group, Fast Company's "Most Influential Women in Technology," and being named one of the "Ten Most Powerful Women in Tech" by CNN magazine.

Carter was an active community leader and was listed in Madison's Who's Who. She was a founding member of the WITI Global Executive Network (GEN) program for senior executive women and a member of the WITI (Women in Technology International) Executive Advisory Council. She was also a member of the American Management Association (AMA) and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Inner Circle.

She served as a Board Member of the Grace Hopper Industry Advisory Committee and was the Co-Lead IBM Partnership Executive at her alma mater, Duke University. Carter served on the Board of WITI, the Forrester Research CMO Board, and the Board of the Children's Art Foundation. An avid traveler and lover of all things Texan, she traveled to over 68 countries in her Social Evangelism role. She resided in New York with her husband, two daughters, and a Maltese named Scarlett, and she enjoyed traveling, swimming, reading, and watching Duke Basketball.