At a moment of unevenness and division, who is advancing the vanguard of economic and social progress to bolster under-served communities? Whose work is fostering the shared growth that ensures every individual thrives? Who will set the ambitious standards that mobilize whole industries, challenging their peers to reach new altitudes of social impact? 

In 2025, Impact Next — an editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate social responsibility and impact leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, and philanthropists whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for social and economic action.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Asha Varghese, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Caterpillar and President of the Caterpillar Foundation.

Greg Behrman, founder and CEO, NationSwell: What brought you to the field that you’re in right now? Was there an early moment, a relationship, or an experience that galvanized your commitment to driving bold action?

Asha Varghese, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Caterpillar and President of the Caterpillar Foundation: What brought me into this work wasn’t a single defining moment but really a series of experiences that shaped how I see opportunity, equity, and the role the private sector can play in expanding both.

A big part of that goes back to growing up between two very different worlds. I spent my early childhood in Kerala, India, and my family didn’t move to rural Kentucky until I was 12. On the surface, those places couldn’t have looked more different, but what connected them for me was how deeply access to opportunity shaped people’s lives. I was fortunate to grow up in a family that believed fiercely in education and pushed us toward careers, especially in STEM. But many people in both of those communities didn’t have the same access. Living between those two worlds taught me resilience, but also a lasting awareness of how much opportunity — or the lack of it — can define a person’s path.

The other set of worlds I’ve learned to navigate is more professional: I’m a computer engineer by training, and I now work in corporate philanthropy and social impact. Those fields may seem far apart, but for me they’re deeply connected: Engineering taught me how to break down complex problems, innovate with limited resources, and build thoughtful, durable solutions, and I bring that same mindset to social impact work.

That’s really how I think about this role: bridging the discipline and problem-solving orientation of the private sector with the urgency and complexity of social development. It’s the combination of those personal and professional experiences that led me here.

Behrman, NationSwell: What is the “North Star” of your leadership style? What are some of the attributes that make you an effective leader in the space?

Varghese, Caterpillar: I’d say my North Star as a leader is creating stable pathways for people to thrive, no matter where they’re starting from. That’s true for how I lead as an individual, and also for how I show up representing our brand.

I actually got a lot of clarity on that through the Presidential Leadership Scholars program, which brings together leaders to study the leadership styles of past U.S. presidents. One of the most powerful exercises they put us through was identifying your single core value — the one you’d choose if you could only pick one. For me, that value was stability.

That really clicked for me because it ties so directly to my own journey. Stable environments created opportunity in my life, and that’s shaped how I think about leadership ever since. Any solution I’m building, any initiative I’m helping lead, I want to make sure I’m leaving behind something that outlasts me: a system that is durable, intentional, and built to support people over time.

The other value that has become increasingly important to me over the last decade is empathy. And I don’t think of empathy as a soft skill but as strategic clarity. It’s about listening deeply to communities, to teams, to emerging leaders, and making sure their voices shape the systems we’re building. At the core of all of it, I believe in expanding access to opportunity. That’s what guides the work I do.

Behrman, NationSwell: What is helping you or anchoring you to a sense of stability in the current moment?

Varghese, Caterpillar: A good example of that is the work we’ve been doing at Caterpillar around the future of work. Last year, as we celebrated the company’s centennial, we used that milestone not just to reflect on our legacy, but to sharpen our focus on people.

In a moment defined by AI and rapid technological change, the question for us is not whether technology matters; of course it does. The question is: how do we make sure people and technology can coexist and thrive together? That’s where a lot of my work is centered right now.

It connects directly to our broader commitment around workforce development and the future of work. For the next generation entering the workforce, the path forward can feel increasingly unclear. At the same time, there are many workers, especially in manufacturing and adjacent sectors, who understandably worry about being left behind. So the challenge for us is how to help create stable pathways for both groups: pathways that help young people navigate what’s next, and pathways that help current workers adapt with confidence.

That’s the work in front of us right now: taking a massive, complex problem and breaking it down into scalable solutions that help people feel more prepared, more included, and more secure in the future.

Behrman, NationSwell: What is unique or differentiated about the approach that you’re taking? Can you walk us through what excites you most about the work that you’re leading?

Varghese, Caterpillar: It’s hard to pick a single initiative, but the work I’m most energized by right now is our growing enterprise-wide commitment to workforce development. We’ve supported that work in different ways for years, but this deeper focus across the company gives me a lot of optimism because it’s so clearly centered on people.

More broadly, one approach I’m especially proud of is how we think about shared-value philanthropy: designing strategies that create real social impact while also aligning with the unique role a company like Caterpillar can play. Over the last six years, through a pandemic, humanitarian crises, and all kinds of global volatility, we’ve stayed committed to showing up consistently in communities. And what I’m proudest of is that we’ve done it by keeping community at the center — not by assuming we know the answers, but by listening, collaborating, and building solutions that can outlast us.

A good example in the U.S. is the Caterpillar Foundation’s work with Learning Undefeated, which uses game-based experiences to get K–12 students, especially middle schoolers, excited about STEM and modern manufacturing. It’s a creative way to tackle perception and interest early, and it brings in not just students, but teachers and other adults who influence their choices.

Globally, the Foundation is also focused on partnerships that treat jobs as the outcome, not just training. That’s what I appreciate about partners like IYF and Generation: the goal isn’t simply to hand someone a certification. It’s to ask, did this person get a job, and are they still in it six months later? That’s the kind of economic progress that matters. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Are there any particularly cool or illustrative examples of how Caterpillar is showing up in communities?

Varghese, Caterpillar: One longstanding area of work I’d point to is our disaster relief and humanitarian response portfolio through the Foundation. What I find especially meaningful about it is that we don’t think about disaster response as just the immediate relief effort (though that’s obviously critical). We also focus on how communities can be better prepared before disaster strikes, so local organizations are ready to respond quickly rather than starting from scratch in the middle of a crisis.

And just as importantly, we stay engaged after the headlines fade. Once the cameras are gone and the community is still recovering, we look at long-term mitigation and resilience, which is where this work connects directly to our sustainable infrastructure portfolio. That means asking: what kinds of nature-based or infrastructure solutions can actually reduce the impact of future floods, fires, droughts, and other climate-related events?

To me, that portfolio really reflects the consistency of how we try to show up as a company. Whether it was COVID, wildfires in California, or flooding in parts of Africa, the goal is the same: respond in the moment, but also invest in the systems that help communities recover and withstand what comes next. That’s a strong example of what shared-value philanthropy looks like for us.

Behrman, NationSwell: Are there any resources you’d recommend — books, podcasts, Ted talks — that have influenced your thinking that might influence others as well?

Varghese, Caterpillar:  On the resource side, a couple of things come to mind right away. Podcast-wise, I really like the TED Radio Hour episode on “Networks.” It resonates deeply with how I think about leadership and impact — that solutions grow at the speed of trust, and that ecosystems and relationships really matter.

I also really enjoy Fortune’s Leadership Next. It’s a great look at how CEOs and corporate leaders are thinking about leadership today, especially when it comes to integrating social responsibility into business strategy. That intersection feels very relevant to the work I do, so I always find something useful there.

Book-wise, one that has really stayed with me is Atomic Habits by James Clear. It’s helped me stay disciplined and intentional about how I want to show up, both personally and professionally. I also subscribe to his weekly newsletter, which I find grounding and consistently useful.

Behrman, NationSwell: Of the socially motivated leaders you consider your peers, who are 2-3 whose work inspired you and whom you hold in high esteem?

Varghese, Caterpillar: The person who most inspires me is my father, Dr. Roy Varghese. He came to the U.S. in the 1970s and ultimately chose to spend more than 30 years of his career in rural Kentucky, helping revive a struggling hospital in a small town where he was, for a long time, the only physician. He could have chosen to practice anywhere, but he chose to stay there; that says so much to me about resilience, purpose, and intentionality. The way he showed up in medicine, and the way he stayed rooted in service, has had a profound impact on how I think about leadership.

Beyond that, I’m inspired by so many leaders across the social development space — especially those who lead with steadiness, creativity, and a commitment to building systems that outlast them. It’s a tough and often chaotic world, and I have a lot of admiration for the way so many nonprofit and corporate leaders continue to show up with consistency and conviction for the greater good.