Diana Birkett Rakow

I am an experienced c-suite executive and non-executive board director driving business growth and impact through integrated policy, investment, commercial, communications, and climate strategies in highly regulated, consumer-facing industries. I’m driven to lead change, innovate, develop high-performing teams, equip business for long-term durability and competitiveness, and bring stakeholders together to act on business and climate challenges. I hold US, UK, and Irish citizenship. At Alaska Airlines (NYSE:ALK), I lead the company’s corporate affairs, reputation, and impact strategies, local market engagement and venture investment as a member of the executive committee. I’m responsible for sustainability, government affairs, communications, regional market teams and the airline’s investment arm, Alaska Star Ventures I serve on the Board of Puget Sound Energy to support PSE’s clean energy transformation alongside reliability, service excellence and value creation. I also serve on the Board of Hawaiian Airlines to support safety, culture, operational reliability, loyalty and brand strength as we integrate our airlines. Prior to Alaska, I was executive vice president of public affairs and marketing at health care insurance and delivery company Group Health and president of the Group Health Foundation, leading brand strategy and corporate affairs to garner member support for the company’s acquisition by Kaiser Permanente and create a new $1.8 billion foundation. Earlier in my career, I was a Policy Advisor to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT). Areas of interest and leadership include: - Climate strategy, governance, and building creative coalitions for action. - Building, managing, and transforming cross-functional teams at scale. - Brand strategy, communications and customer engagement for revenue growth, loyalty and reputation management. - Pragmatic problem-solving, innovation, venture investment and new technology development with a focus on business optimization and decarbonization. - Creating sustainability-linked customer products to enable new technology adoption. - Global government affairs, policy & advocacy to scale climate tech and reform public systems to enable aviation and healthcare. - Complex M&A leadership for stakeholder engagement, regulatory approval, brand and culture integration, change management. - Philanthropic giving and civic leadership to enable economic growth and opportunity alongside community health. - Advisor and speaker on sustainability, leadership, governance and corporate affairs.