Shift the Prism Advisory

Karyn Polak | Founder and Chief Activator

Karyn founded Shift the Prism to support changes in mindsets, systems, and approaches to capital and development. Throughout her career, Karyn has consistently sought to reduce inequities and increase inclusion through concrete contributions as a business executive, board member, mentor, and community convener and connector.

She previously served as a senior counsel, trusted advisor, and C-suite executive in her various roles at Citigroup, PNC Bank, and Transamerica — from her first senior position as General Counsel for Citi Private Bank to her most recent as Chief Legal Officer for Transamerica. She also has over a decade of experience advising global financial institutions, multinational corporations, and family businesses in corporate finance, securities, and mergers and acquisitions at three top 100 U.S. law firms.

Karyn's prior roles as a senior executive and legal counsel across the spectrum of traditional finance -- from consumer banking to brokerage and wealth management, investment banking, institutional asset management, and insurance and retirement -- highlighted the gaps in capital tools and access that she works today to close. She consults on a portfolio of projects that stretch mindsets and opportunities from philanthropy to the public markets, driving innovation in place-based, local investments and for individuals, businesses, and communities.

Top Skills

  • Strategic Leadership
  • Impact Investing
  • Interdisciplinary Collaboration
  • Sustainability
  • Executive Management
  • Legal Industry Advancement
Three people sitting at a table looking at a laptop.
A group of people sitting at a table with laptops.

What Sets Shift the Prism Apart

  • Ability to convene and influence across sectors, functions, industries.
  • Experience across the spectrum of capital, from philanthropy to public markets.
  • Proven record of leadership and strategic counsel for individuals, teams, businesses, and networks.
  • Understanding of and appreciation for the roles of government, for-profit and non-profit, and community organizations as well as individuals and family units as contributors to our economy, our environment, and our neighborhoods.
  • Listen-first and lead-with-service mindset.
  • Recognition of every person's humanity and right to dignity, and determination to support every person's potential.

Who We Are

Shift the Prism is a social and economic advisor supporting changes in mindsets, systems, and approaches to advance a more prosperous, regenerative, and equal economy that works for all. We convene cross-sector, cross-function networks to shift mindsets from traditional to innovative, co-creating with those closest to the problems to solve complex, interdependent problems one team or silo alone can’t solve.

Collective impact is amplified impact, in our view.

What We Do

We shift approaches to investing in people, place, and planet toward purpose-driven, impact-focused solutions, activating asset stewards of all kinds to advance community wealth and wellness across the United States.

We bring our policy advocacy to bear to shift systems that are broken or harmful from extractive to restorative, breaking down structural and individual barriers to equity and access and expanding opportunity for those historically unrecognized, underserved, and excluded.

Why We Do It:

Because we need:

  • More players willing to collaborate across sectors, functions, and systems.
  • More financial services providers and support functions like lawyers, tax professionals, and investment managers and advisors who understand and iterate on the tools for meaningful human impact.
  • More capital directed towards impact-first investments, closing the gaps between public markets and local needs, between the financially wealthy and the untapped other wealth that exists in all of us.

Courage+Capacity+Capital=Change