Kate Sofis

Kate is the co-founder and CEO of SFMade, an internationally recognized public-private partnership launched in 2010 that has helped catalyze a resurgence in local manufacturing in one of the most prosperous yet economically divided and expensive regions in the world: the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Kate is also co-founder of the Urban Manufacturing Alliance, a collaboration of more than 150 North American cities, all working to connect major urban centers to each other and promoting the replication of successful urban manufacturing models across cities. 

Internationally, Kate has participated in manufacturing-based economic development projects in London, Berlin, Goteborg and Algeria. She has been a featured speaker at South by Southwest, CityLab, the Clinton Global Initiative, Techonomy, and the US Conference of Mayors on the topic of manufacturing, urban economic development, the intersection of cities, work, and shared economic prosperity.

Kate has been recognized twice as a Most Influential Woman by the San Francisco Business Times and recently was awarded the prestigious Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for her work.

Sofis holds an M.S. in City Design and Social Policy from the London School of Economics and an A.B. in Economics from Harvard University.