Karen joined Bruegel as a Visiting Fellow in September 2012 and became a Senior Fellow in November 2013. She has worked in the Structural Policy Division of the Science, Technology and Industry Directorate at the OECD since 2009 and served as a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation from 2008-2012. She is an Associate Fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University and a Visiting Lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. Karen is the founder of GV Partners, a research and consulting firm she created in 2004. Her work at Bruegel focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation.
Karen is a Board Member and Advisor of the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER), a member of the European Leadership Council for Harvard Business School, a Research and Policy Advisor for the U.K. Princes Trust Youth Business International (YBI), and an expert on the European Commission Horizon 2020 Access to Risk Finance Advisory Group. She is the author of a number of publications on entrepreneurship and finance.
Prior to founding GV Partners, Karen worked with a leading international venture capital firm. Previously, she was part of the senior management team at the World Economic Forum and, before that, served as the Executive Director of the Global Initiative at Harvard Business School. She received, with honors, a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.