Karen Carter, global marketing director for Dow's packaging and specialty plastics business and a 20-year employee of Dow, was recently named to the Forty Women to Watch Over 40 List for 2014. Carter was selected from more than 500 nominations for her leadership contributions to business innovation, passion for excellence and commitment to community service, the company stated.

In its second year of publishing, the Forty Women to Watch Over 40 List has come to symbolize that age is not a barrier to success. The list features female leaders from around the world, whose work spans a variety of industries from the arts and sciences, to politics and entertainment, to social entrepreneurs and corporate change-makers. The 2014 winners were chosen by a diverse panel of judges based on the nominee's individuality and character beyond industry standings, to include: positive mentorship, helping other women along and up and balancing work/life issues.

Carter was nominated for the 2014 list due to her leadership with Dow packaging and specialty plastics where she defines and implements the global strategy for downstream engagement within the packaging value chain. According to Forty Over 40, her inclusion in the list is a result of her lifelong passion to constantly reinvent, lean in, and create momentum that will resonate across the business and target industries.

"Karen has served as an exceptional change agent to drive new market engagement strategies that will grow share and value creation in the packaging business at Dow," stated Diego Donoso, business president of Dow packaging and specialty plastics. "As one of the senior executives on my global leadership team, Karen is known for breaking down barriers and pushing the envelope...which ultimately paves the way for a more dynamic and improved operating environment at Dow."

Carter is a driving force in the development of new business models and solutions that is transforming Dow's image in the marketplace. Historically, Dow has been viewed as strictly a commodity materials supplier to the packaging industry, but Carter has built a global team of Dow experts to foster collaboration with brand owners, retailers, design firms, original equipment manufacturers and universities to develop new business opportunities for packaging innovation. This new model promotes full transparency across the entire value chain and supports Dow's "customer first" mindset to enable growth for all parties.

The ability to integrate personal values in her work while successfully meeting company objectives is one of Carter's defining attributes and a hallmark of the Forty Women to Watch Over 40. In addition to her daily job responsibilities, she is active in Dow employee networks as well as external organizations. Her achievements include involvement in developing Dow's Global Diversity Expertise Center and ongoing leadership for Dow's African American Network, one of Dow's seven employee networks. Carter is a previous member of the Dow Kakoh Kabushiki Kaisha board of directors, a joint venture between Sumitomo Chemical and Dow Chemical, and she is a current member of the Adoption Option, Inc. board of directors.

Forty Women to Watch over 40 was created by Christina Vuleta and Whitney Johnson to bring awareness to the reality that "innovation gets even better with age." Christina, creator of 40:20 Vision, a cross-generational mentoring platform and Whitney, speaker, investor and author of Dare, Dream, Do, both share the conviction that women in their forties and onwards reach new levels of creativity, clarity and confidence.