Secretary
Karen is in the business of guiding conscious companies in their quest to turn visions into reality. She promotes the business paradigm that focuses on people, planet, purpose and prosperity. Karen has over 20 years’ experience working with global brands including managing projects for celebrity brands such as George Foreman, Bob Marley and Akon. She is an MBA graduate of Thunderbird School of Global Management, is bicultural and has traveled to over 70 countries. Most recently, she joined the Visionary Private Equity Group, a purpose driven private equity fund as a Sr. Advisor. The group has over 35 companies in its portfolio including a media and entertainment company, Visionary Media Group, and several technology-driven companies including Fanduel, TunesMap and META.
In 2014, Karen launched her own consulting company to support organizations with business development, marketing and communications, events, sustainability strategies and strategic partnerships. Karen was a founding member of two celebrity for-profit companies. As the first hire and founding member of the House of Marley consumer electronics leadership team, she successfully launched the brand in over 20 countries. She was involved in all aspects of the business from marketing and events, hiring brand and industrial design companies to identifying suppliers and sustainable materials. The goal was to spread Bob Marley’s vision of creating a better world through earth-friendly audio products. Karen was also a founding member of the 1Love.org charity. The second company is Akon Lighting Africa, where she held a C-suite position. This initiative brought solar energy solutions to more than 1 million rural households in over 10 countries. Here, she focused on communications and strategic partnerships to grow the business.
One of Karen’s many skills is her ability to foster strategic partnerships between like-minded organizations. Her efforts with Akon led to the first African-made solar street light assembly plant in Mali. She also led the co-creation of Light to Learn, a campaign around education and energy in Liberia with Akon, the technology driven Bridge International Academy schools and the first elected female head of state in Africa, Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson. Karen has also supported the growth and expansion of several celebrity driven NGOs through fundraising and strategic partnerships. For example, she convinced House of Marley to be a sponsor for the Little Kids Rock’s “Right to Rock” fundraiser concert featuring Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt which raised funds for music programs for kids across the U.S. and helped to raise funds for Forest Whitaker’s – Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI). She also collaborated closely with actress Patricia Arquette’s foundation GiveLove.org to build compost toilets for a community of people with disabilities in a slum in East Africa. Karen is also an Ambassador for the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC). She has attended and spoken on panels hosted by ACTAI.global and GBBC at Sr. Richard Branson’s Kasbah Tamador in Morocco and during the Extreme Tech Challenge on Necker Island. She is a Founding Member of 100 Woman@Davos and an Advisory Council Member of Thunderbird School of Global Management.