She started as an intern. Thirty-two years later, she is taking the top seat.
Dow Inc. announced that Karen S. Carter, currently the company’s chief operating officer, will become Chief Executive Officer effective July 1, 2026 — making her the first Black woman and first person of color to lead the materials science giant in its 126-year history. The appointment also places her among the rarest group in American corporate life: Black women leading Fortune 500 companies.
“She is a disciplined, highly respected leader with a deep understanding of Dow’s businesses and customers,” said Richard Davis, Dow’s independent lead director. “This appointment reflects our confidence in her ability to lead Dow forward into its next chapter of growth and value creation for customers, employees and shareholders.”
From Wichita to Howard to the Corner Office
Carter’s story does not begin in a boardroom. It begins in northeast Wichita, Kansas, where she grew up attending Buckner Elementary, Robinson Middle School, and East High School — where she participated in the International Baccalaureate program. Her first job came at Ken Mar Family Drugs at 13th and Oliver, where she learned how to count money and observed what it takes to run a business from the store’s owners.
Much of her leadership foundation, she said, came from her involvement at St. Paul AME Church, where she served as president of the Young People’s Department.
From Wichita, Carter made her way to Howard University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing. She interned for Dow as a marketing student at Howard University — and that internship became the first chapter of a career that would span more than three decades. She later earned a master’s degree in international business from DePaul University.
Carter joined Dow in 1994 as a sales specialist in its plastic-film business. Over the next three decades, she worked across operations, sales, marketing, human resources and international business, including roles in the Asia Pacific region, eventually running the company’s largest division before becoming COO.
Building the Company’s Largest Division
Before taking the COO role, Carter led one of the most consequential business units in Dow’s portfolio. Before becoming COO, Carter served as Dow’s president of packaging and specialty plastics — the company’s largest operating segment at $23 billion. She “led value growth through asset upgrades, capacity expansions and improved reliability, while advancing circular economy solutions” in that role. Carter has, in all, held leadership positions within segments including building and construction, fabricated products, IT equipment, polyethylene, engineering thermoplastics, and consumer electronics.
As COO, she has had executive oversight for driving business and operational performance across the organization with a focus on strengthening customer engagement and relationships, accelerating the commercialization of Dow’s innovation pipeline, and enhancing the company’s reliability and service to customers. Carter also has strategic oversight of Dow’s business operating segments — Packaging & Specialty Plastics, Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure, and Performance Materials & Coatings — as well as Research and Development.
Carter was also named Dow’s first chief inclusion officer in 2018 — a milestone within a milestone, showing that her influence on the company’s culture runs as deep as her operational command.
A Historic Seat at a Historic Moment
In 126 years, Dow has never had a Black woman as its chief executive. Fifty-five women currently lead Fortune 500 companies, which is a record high. When Carter steps in this summer, she will be one of just two Black women in that group, despite Black women making up nearly 7 percent of the U.S. population.
That number — two — tells the full story of how rare this moment is. And what makes Carter’s ascent particularly significant for the BLKBusiness community is the path she took to get there: no shortcuts, no lateral moves to another company at the top, and no sudden arrival at prominence. She outworked, outlearned, and outlasted in one of the most chemistry-intensive, operationally complex industries in the world.
Carter joined Dow in 1994, fresh out of Howard University and DePaul, stepping into an industry where Black women were rarely centered. That was not a small bet. Materials science, chemicals, and plastics manufacturing are not industries commonly associated with Black corporate ascension. She chose to build deep expertise in a field where she was often the only one who looked like her — and she stayed until there was no one left above her to promote.
In her own words, following the announcement: “Our focus remains unwavering: delivering reliable and innovative solutions for our customers, and long-term value for our employees and our shareholders, while accelerating our transformation to set a new competitive standard for best-in-class performance.”
Dow’s Next Chapter — and What Carter Is Walking Into
Dow reported 2025 sales of approximately $40 billion and operates across 29 countries with 34,600 employees. The company Carter is inheriting is in the middle of a significant transformation initiative called “Transform to Outperform,” which is targeting at least $2 billion in near-term EBITDA improvements through simplifying operations, resetting cost structures, and modernizing customer service.
Outgoing CEO Jim Fitterling will remain on Dow’s board as executive chair — a transition structure that industry watchers will follow closely. Fitterling has been CEO for eight years, during which time he transformed Dow from a commodity chemicals business to a high-growth innovator. During that time, the company has also been impacted by tariffs, geopolitical challenges, and industry overcapacity. “Our direction is unchanged,” Fitterling wrote in a note after the announcement.
Wichita to the World
“Wichita is the place that I call home,” Carter has said. “I’ll be proud to retire here.” Her mother remains active in the community and at St. Paul AME Church. Her sisters are well-known locally. Her family roots reflect a woman who has never lost sight of where she came from, even as she climbed to heights few have reached.
Carter has been published in the Journal of the American Health Information Management Association and featured in Chemical Week, the Huffington Post, MORE Magazine, and multiple podcasts. In 2018, she was named to Black Enterprise’s Top Executives in Diversity list. In 2019, she was named to Black Enterprise’s Most Powerful Women in Corporate America list. Since 2020, she has been recognized annually as one of the 100 Ethnic Minority Executives on the EMpower Ethnic Minority Role Model Lists.
On July 1, 2026, Karen S. Carter will walk into the corner office of a 126-year-old Fortune 500 company and become its CEO. The intern became the chief. The HBCU graduate became the most powerful executive in American materials science.
That is not a small story. That is the whole story.
