Future Changemakers Forum

With the Sarah Carey Award, Eurasia Foundation recognizes an individual who has notably advanced civil society through the practice of diplomacy, law, business, or public advocacy. Honorees embody the pioneering spirit of Eurasia Foundation’s long-serving chair, Sarah Carey. Throughout her abundant life and career, Sarah Carey was a tireless and effective champion of economic and cultural engagement between people of the United States and the Eurasia region. Past Sarah Carey Award recipients include Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, Senators Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn, Ambassador William J. Burns, Drew Guff, and Dr. Fiona Hill.

Oksana Markarova has served as Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States since April 20, 2021. She previously served as Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister and Government Commissioner on Investment from 2015 to 2018 and as a Minister of Finance from 2018 to 2020. During her time at the Ministry of Finance, Markarova co-authored Ukraine’s macroeconomic revival program. She introduced midterm and gender-oriented budgeting and conducted unprecedented fiscal consolidation. She also negotiated, structured, and coordinated two International Monetary Fund programs and other international finance institution cooperation programs. During her tenure, she and her team created the government promotion agency UkraineInvest, the Ukrainian Startup Fund, and an ecosystem of government public finance portals based on open data. Among these portals are spending.gov.ua and openbudget.gov.ua. Markarova also oversaw the creation of BOOST, an analytical instrument that opened the majority of state finance data to the public. These advancements improved Ukraine’s rank in all major international transparency ratings.

Prior to her career in public service, Markarova spent 17 years working in private equity and financial advisory. She held leadership roles at ITT Investment Group, Western NIS Enterprise Fund, Chemonics, and the World Bank. She also founded Archidata, a startup electronic archive company, in between service positions in 2020.

Celebrating Trailblazing Leaders