# Sarita James

> Sarita James is the CEO of Embark, the New York admissions-software company whose application portals route millions of student dossiers to Harvard, Dartmouth, NYU, the Rhodes Scholarships and the Fulbright Program. A Harvard computer scientist and Oxford MBA who once won the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair as a teenager, she has shipped software at Microsoft (two patents), advised companies at McKinsey, run a microloan program as a White House Fellow under Obama, and steered strategy for New York City's economic-development arm under Bloomberg. She also writes, sits on the board of the Asian American Writers' Workshop, and lists Salman Rushdie as her favorite author.

- **Role:** CEO at Embark Corporation
- **Organizations:** Embark Corporation, Citigroup / Citi Ventures, Microsoft, McKinsey & Company, The White House (White House Fellows), U.S. Small Business Administration, New York City Economic Development Corporation, Asian American Writers' Workshop
- **From:** Indiana, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A. in Computer Science, Harvard College, M.B.A., University of Oxford, Said Business School
- **Known for:** Won the 1994 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a speech-recognition software project as a teenager, Earned two patents as a product developer at Microsoft, Selected as a White House Fellow under the Obama administration

## Career timeline

- **1994** — Won the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair as a teenager with a speech-recognition software project
- **1998** — Graduated from Harvard College in Computer Science; was a CS50 teaching fellow
- **1998** — Taught computer science in Zimbabwe after graduation
- **2000s** — Product developer at Microsoft, awarded two patents
- **2000s** — Earned M.B.A. from Oxford University's Said Business School
- **2000s** — Management consultant at McKinsey & Company advising technology companies
- **2009-2013** — White House Fellow under the Obama administration; Acting Branch Chief of the SBA Microloan program
- **2010s** — Ran the Strategy and Policy division of NYC Economic Development Corporation under Mayor Bloomberg
- **2010s** — Executive roles at Citigroup, including Chief Operating Officer of Citi Ventures
- **2015** — Named President of Embark in February 2015
- **2016** — Named to Crain's New York Business 40 Under 40
- **present** — CEO of Embark, powering millions of student applications worldwide

## Achievements

- Won the 1994 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a speech-recognition software project as a teenager
- Earned two patents as a product developer at Microsoft
- Selected as a White House Fellow under the Obama administration
- Named to Crain's New York Business 40 Under 40 (2016)
- Led Embark to power over 13-16 million student applications across 150+ countries
- Built Embark's client roster including Harvard, Dartmouth, NYU, the Rhodes Scholarships and the Fulbright Program
- Published in the New York Times; contributor to 'Girls and Young Women Inventing'
- Board member of the Asian American Writers' Workshop

## Latest updates

- **2016-01** — Named to Crain's New York Business 40 Under 40.
- **2015-02** — Named President of Embark.

## Links

- Website: https://embark.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saritajames/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sarita-james
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-03