Speakers and Chairs Bios

Karen is an Associate Director of the Corporate Research Forum and the Research Director of Aditi Unlimited. She has worked extensively across all sectors on the issue of organisation effectiveness, particularly developing sustainable strategic capability. She has published books on the global aspects of effectiveness – ‘Leading International Teams’ & ‘Globalisation: The internal dynamic’.

Karen has worked for over twenty five years exploring how the HR function can add value through building sustainable organisational performance. She taught on the Ashridge Strategic HR Programme  for many years; worked closely with the CIPD Next Generation HR Research; collaborates with the Corporate Research Forum’s on a range of research topics and is working with The Maturity Institute, a leading think tank on the effectiveness of People practices in organisations

Due to the breadth of her experience, Karen is often invited to deliver key note addresses at
in-house or public conferences and to participate in or to chair panel sessions. She provides practical examples to illustrate leading edge research, which enables the audiences to apply the insights to their own organisations. Karen also chairs CRF’s successful webinar series and peer practitioner sessions.

Karen lives in North Norfolk, UK and works globally.

Specialities
Karen advises a range of organisations on issues related to the effective implementation of sustainable strategic choices. Her work spans two communities within organisations – organisational leaders and line managers on the one hand and change capability practitioners (HR, OD or L&D) on the other. She is particularly interested in the potential of the space between these communities for creating accountable, ethical and healthy places of work.

Experience
Prior to her research and consulting career Karen was a Senior Civil Servant working on developing strategic change capability in the UK public sector and she has previously held senior leadership roles within organisations in the pharmaceutical and financial services sectors.
She began her career with PA Consulting Group. She has lived in Nigeria, USA, Germany and UK and worked globally for over 26 years.