Overview
Sarah Diamond is a seasoned executive with deep experience in the financial services, technology, consulting, and regulatory sectors. Curious, collaborative, and strategic, she is adept at framing complex issues and helping Fortune 100 companies thrive in rapidly changing business, technology, and regulatory landscapes. Over the course of her 30-plus-year career, Diamond has worked with most major banks, Wall Street firms, and regulators. A global leader, she has led teams across cultures and time zones in Europe, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, and the U.S.
Career History
As the Global Managing Director of Financial Services at IBM, Diamond managed a $10B P&L and was responsible for helping the top 50 global financial services clients embrace digitization to grow their businesses while creating customer value within the rapidly changing regulatory, business, and technology landscape.
Diamond was engaged in a wide range of governing roles at IBM, as an active member of the Performance Team (comprised of the top P&L leaders in the company), the Academy of Technology Advisory Board, the Culture Think Tank, and the Global Industry Academy where she was the founding president. She was also a sponsor of IBM’s Technical Women Program, an initiative focused on ensuring that IBM has a vibrant talent pool of qualified women in technical professions. Additionally, she served as Vice Chair of the Advisory Board of Directors and senior advisor to the Chairman and CEO of the Promontory Financial Group, an IBM company. In this role, Diamond provided technology and domain expertise in identifying the opportunity, leading the acquisition, and optimizing brand, IP, client, talent, and cultural synergies upon the successful execution of the merger.
Previously, Diamond served as Strategy Leader for IBM’s Global Business Industries, General Manager of Global Industries, where she created a framework to drive innovation and impact across IBM’s 12 industry sectors, and General Manager of Global Consulting Services, responsible for strategy, execution, and business results in more than 170 countries. Before joining IBM, she served as Senior Vice President in charge of capital markets at KPMG, after launching her career in international banking at Chemical Bank in London.
Diamond is a Non-Executive Board Member and Advisory Board Member of several technology companies based in the UK, Australia, and India and an Executive-in-Residence and Industry Advisor at Northeastern University’s Center for Technology Management and Digital Leadership. Her not-for-profit commitments focus on education and women. She is a volunteer with PENCIL, a NYC-based non-profit that connects public school students to the business community, and The Business Council for Peace (Bpeace) which creates jobs in crisis-affected communities through pro bono coaching and consulting services for promising entrepreneurs in these areas. She is also a board member of the American Friends of St. Hilda’s College, University of Oxford, and past board member and President of the Women’s Bond Club of New York.
Personal
Diamond holds an M.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University, where she held a Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship, and an M.A. in Modern History from the University of Oxford. She currently resides in New York with her husband, a professor at New York University. She has two adult children, also with careers in education.