Khuloud Odeh

Khuloud Odeh is the Global Director of Digital and Data, and the Executive Director (a.i.) of the CGIAR System Organization. She brings a unique blend of education, IT organization leadership, change stewardship, and a deep understanding of global and local sustainability challenges. A thought leader on digital innovation for impact, she successfully led mission-driven organizations transformative digital strategies and roadmaps that build organizational resilience, align with their priorities, contribute to sustainable growth, increase agility, and accelerate innovation.

Before joining CGIAR, she spent 18 years in executive IT leadership roles in national and international organizations, including VP, Technology and Data Science and CIO, at the Urban Institute; Director of IT at Grameen Foundation; and CIO at CHF International (now Global Communities). In addition, she has worked on USAID-funded activities in more than 40 countries, mainly in the technical aspects of program impact assessment, monitoring, evaluation, and performance reporting systems, and worked extensively in the development and evaluation of management systems and technologies for microfinance programs and mobile technology for the poor. She holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology and Engineering from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA; a master’s in strategic leadership towards sustainability from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden; an MSc in computer science from the American University in Washington, DC; and BSc in computer science from the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan.

Recently, she was named one of eight global Nonprofit Tech Fellows with Okta for Good for 2021, an initiative that aims to amplify the voices of leaders across the nonprofit sector advocating for sector-wide movement toward better use and implementation of technology. In 2020, she was recognized as a nonprofit finalist for the CapitalCIO of the Year ORBIE Awards. In 2018, she was named one of the Power Women of Tech in Washington, DC, according to DCA Live, and one of twenty CIOs to follow on Twitter for digital transformation wisdom according to The Enterprisers Project.