Sarah Osman is a cognitive psychologist, global development specialist, and social entrepreneur with twenty years of experience across Europe, Africa, and Asia. Born in Khartoum, Sudan, and shaped by a life lived across multiple continents, she has built her career at the intersection of applied behavioural science and international development, helping major organisations translate insights about human decision-making into programmes that create lasting social change.

As the founder of Osman Advisory Services, Sarah has worked with international organisations such as the Council of Europe, World Vision, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union on some of the most complex behavioural challenges in global development.

In 2024, she founded Ela, a membership community for women of colour building their own consulting practices. Ela is grounded in the conviction that structural inequity in the consulting sector cannot be solved by individual effort alone: it requires community, peer accountability, and the kind of behavioural design thinking that Sarah has spent two decades applying in the field. Ela members are already experiencing tangible transformation in how they position themselves and grow with confidence.
Sarah is currently building a new platform for Africa-focused professionals who want to harness the power of behavioural and consumer insights in their work and sector.

Currently based in Oslo, Sarah is a true ‘glocal’ citizen: Sudanese by heritage, Pan-African by spirit, European by dwelling, and wholly at home in the space between local realities and global systems.