Sara Holoubek is the Founding Partner of Luminary Labs, a strategy and innovation consultancy established in 2009 that serves the private sector, federal agencies, and philanthropic organizations. With over 25 years of experience guiding clients through technological disruption, regulatory complexity, and organizational transformation, Sara now focuses on executive advisory services, helping senior leaders navigate change and make confident decisions in the face of uncertainty.

Throughout her career, Sara has pioneered new ways of working, structured public-private partnerships, helped organizations place considered bets on the future, and designed novel funding mechanisms. Under her leadership, Luminary Labs designed and produced open innovation programs –– including accelerators, prizes, and piloting programs –– representing more than $350 million in potential incentives for effective and scalable solutions.

Sara is an active angel investor and serves as an independent board director of Contextere, an industrial AI company. Her nonprofit roles have included serving on the inaugural RWJF Pioneer Fund Advisory Group, the Aspen Health Innovation Project Planning Committee, the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History 2020 Visiting Scientist Committee, the 2024 Health Datapalooza Advisory Committee, and as national board chair of Step Up.

An active writer and public speaker, Sara authored “Open Innovation for Impact,” a chapter in Perspectives on Impact: Leading Voices On Making Systemic Change in the Twenty-First Century. She has been recognized by LinkedIn as a Top Voice since 2017, by Mashable as a female founder to watch, and by PepsiCo WIN for her contributions to women in technology.

Sara brings a global perspective to her work, having lived and worked in Latin America and Europe; she speaks Spanish, French, and Portuguese. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and an MBA from HEC Paris.