Saritha Venumbaka

Saritha Venumbaka is a seasoned global executive with more than two decades of leadership across the nonprofit, international financial institution, and management consulting sectors. As Chief Operating Officer of WEConnect International, she has been the driving force behind the organization’s impact and resilience, scaling its reach to women-owned businesses in over 135 countries across six global regions, securing a portfolio of multi-year grants from corporate, government, and philanthropic funders, and stewarding the organization through significant challenges, including the pandemic, while sustaining mission delivery and team performance. The result is an organization with systems, discipline, and financial agility to navigate volatility and pursue growth simultaneously.

A people centered leader, Saritha has fostered a culture of deep organizational loyalty and mission passion, reflected in an 85% employee satisfaction rate where teams remain committed and high performing through successes and challenges. She oversees a broad portfolio spanning finance, operations, technology, human resources, programs, and markets and serves as a close partner to the CEO and Board on strategy, governance, and organizational direction.

Saritha’s vision for WEConnect International is one of an ecosystem where corporate partners fulfill their brand and social impact commitments by meaningfully growing their reach to women-owned businesses and where those businesses, in turn, receive the end-to-end support they need throughout their entrepreneurship journey. In this vision, WEConnect International is not simply a supplier platform; it is the connective tissue between global corporations seeking to live their mission and women entrepreneurs seeking the community, resources, and market access to thrive. Creating that world while building a best-in-class organization in talent, people, and processes is what drives her leadership.

Prior to WEConnect International, Saritha served as Senior Advisor to Corporate Services at the African Development Bank, where she designed and implemented a three-year strategic modernization plan. She previously served as Chief of Corporate Procurement at the Inter-American Development Bank, overseeing $175M in annual procurement spend across the LAC region and transforming the division into a high-performing strategic function, earning the Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Team Award from the US National Procurement Institute.

Earlier in her career, she spent 14 years as a Senior Manager at Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the world’s foremost management and strategy consulting firms, leading complex multi-million-dollar engagements that helped organizations across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors solve critical business challenges spanning organizational transformation, process reengineering, cost optimization, IT modernization, change management, and strategic planning across three continents.

Saritha holds a Master of Science from Johns Hopkins University, an MBA in Project Management from Wright State University, and both a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Commerce from Osmania University. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Project Management Professional (PMP), SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP), and holds certifications in Supply Management (CPSM) and Supplier Diversity (CPSD). She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Nonprofit Accountants & Finance Professionals (ANAFP).