Pivot to Business

On September 2, 2025, Kate Beale (Managing Director, Crowell Global Advisors), Migara Jayawardena (Founder and Managing Director, AMALA Clean Energy Advisors), Shea Flynn (Director of Sustainability, Eurasia Middle East, The Coca-Cola Company), and Jeff Seabright (Senior Advisor, Systemiq Ltd.) offered a wide-ranging look at the many avenues of business and its intersections with the public sector. Olivia Nguyen (Georgetown SFS) moderated this session, and Steve Radelet (Georgetown SFS) also provided additional commentary.

This session was the sixth in our Pivot to New Career Paths seminar series, designed to offer attendees the opportunity to hear from colleagues who have already made these important career transitions and glean how to best embark on these changes themselves.

For many international development professionals, business can seem like an impenetrable world—one focused on producing goods and services that appear disconnected from development work and skill sets. Yet this perception doesn’t reflect reality: there is a consistent need for development expertise in this sector. 

Indeed, given our backgrounds in foreign policy, energy, climate change, sustainability, and geopolitics, as well as our careers spanning both the private and public sectors, we all possess the expertise and broad range of skills that are prized in the business world.

The panelists in this session all agreed that there are significant opportunities in the private sector. They offered their insights on the sector writ-large and provided us with practical advice on how to translate our development toolkit for a successful pivot to business.

Their stories are a testament to how applicable our skills are and should serve as inspiration for those of us looking to join the world of business in our next career pivot!

Other Previous Sessions

Please feel free to browse our other previous sessions to access summaries, video content, and more information about our other events!