I’ve built my career around people, power and possibility.

About Karina

Strategy. Influence. Impact.

Karina Cabrera is an executive advisor, strategist and speaker who has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of government, business and social impact.

Her career began in New York City government, working for New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson, and continued in the U.S. Senate and the Obama White House, where she helped recruit and engage leaders from across the country to serve in presidential appointments.

She later brought that experience into business, advising companies including Pinterest, TPG and Univision, and working at Accenture, where she helped build the firm's work at the intersection of leadership, culture and social impact.

Across each chapter, Karina has built a reputation for understanding how institutions work, cultivating relationships across sectors, and bringing the right people together to move priorities forward.

Today, organizations turn to Karina to navigate complex stakeholders, build influential partnerships, engage communities and translate ambitious ideas into strategy and action.

Building the Rooms Where Ideas Move

Karina founded SPARK The Collective to bring leaders across sectors together and turn relationships into action.

Through SPARK, she has convened intimate leadership gatherings in cities across the country, bringing together executives, elected officials, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and social impact leaders to build relationships, exchange ideas and create new opportunities for collaboration.

Her work has extended to major cultural and industry gatherings including SXSW, Cannes Lions, L’ATTITUDE and Climate Week, with partners including Nielsen, Nextdoor, Omidyar Network and Alvarez & Marsal.

For Karina, convening isn’t about filling a room. It’s about knowing who needs to be in it, what will bring them together and what becomes possible once they are.

“I’ve always believed that the right people, brought together around the right idea, can change what’s possible.”

— Karina Cabrera

With former New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson, an early mentor and my first boss in New York City government

Featured speaker at TPG, in conversation on leadership, culture and the future of work.

SPARK x Nielsen: Convening influential leaders across sectors for conversation, connection and impact.

“Karina was the perfect antidote to our women employees who needed to reset and remind themselves how important they are to the organization. Karina gave real, experience-based practical advice but coupled it with a compelling and impassioned call to action, which we needed. For days following her engagement with us, colleagues spoke about the experience and reinforced its utility and applicability to our organization and its mission. Karina is a must-have to any team.”

— Jordan Booster