Christine Kretz

What has been important in your life you’d like to share from your vision and expertise? 

“I’ve been lucky to have good mentors and insights from friends and colleagues as well as being a mentor myself. As a younger person, I benefited from the experience of those older than I and always from my own group of friends and colleagues. As I get older, I benefit from the insights and ideas of younger people I’m lucky enough to work with and I hope I add a value to them from my own experiences. These shared experiences and variety of insights are what has enriched my life so much.”

Bio:

Christine Kretz is the Vice President of Programs and Partnerships for the International Space Station (ISS) US National Laboratory. Christine’s role is to lead a team that identifies opportunities for leveraging the facilities of the ISS to enable science and technology research that will benefit life on Earth.

Prior to joining the ISS, Christine worked for IBM, starting in 1998 as a manager in the Research Division where her responsibilities included IT security for eight labs globally. From the Research Division, Christine took a corporate position and was named the Global Operations Manager for IBM Life Sciences, an emerging business area for IBM at that time.

Christine has also held the positions of Healthcare Solutions Executive on the IBM Global Healthcare Industry team, as well as roles as a Client Executive and Complex Opportunity Manager in Healthcare / Life Sciences.  Most recently, she managed the Research Division Healthcare and Life Sciences organisation.

Throughout her career, Christine has made time for volunteer work and has served as a paramedic, Girl Scout leader and the manager of the IBM Research Family Science Saturday program.

Christine holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA in Operations from Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh where she is a Director at Large of the Alumni Board and a member of the Business School Alumni Board.