Karen L. Clarkson is an agile leader with a 25+ year career in Customer Experience (CX), B2B Digital Transformation, Digital Services, and Go-to-Market Strategies.  She has earned an unsurpassed reputation for delivering global growth and exceptional experience, from building an internal startup with an acquisition to expanding numerous Fortune 500 accounts skyrocketing annual SaaS/PaaS revenues past $1 Billion.  Her Go-to-Market sales and marketing strategies have spanned the gamut of industries and countries leading her teams from strategy to execution and revenue generation.  An impactful strategic leader with the tenacity to drive large cross-functional groups toward results by enabling and empowering others while leading the organization’s innovation or sustainability initiatives.  Her passion for avant-garde technologies channels her energy to customers and teams initiating innovative change, propelling initiatives forward, and stimulating powerful revenue acceleration, all wrapped up with a slice of humor.

A trajectory career with Ricoh Corp., an $18B multinational digital services and information management company servicing 1.4 million businesses, including 84% of Fortune 500 across 200 global operating companies, she currently serves as Vice President of Go-to-Market Strategy, Sustainability, and Partnerships.   Proud to be aligned with Ricoh as the global leader in the Digital Services space and of equal importance, with their global leadership and commitment to promoting Sustainable business.  This aligns with Karen’s values and reflects Ricoh’s Japanese culture to harmonious principles of intersecting people, prosperity, and the planet.

Academically, Karen holds a B.A. in Rhetoric and Communication from the University of Virginia and more recently completed a year-long certificate program “Leading Customer Centric Growth” at Wharton Executive Education Business School. Passionate about developing a pipeline of women leaders she holds volunteer roles at Ricoh as part of the Diversity Council and a member of Ricoh’s United Nations Sustainable Development Team.  Externally she supports How Women Lead as a board member, investor, and leading initiatives to promote the advancement of women.   As a recurring advisor with Women Leaders of the World, Karen mentored, a CEO in Mexico with sales and marketing business strategies developing skills for women to succeed.  She also mentored an Executive Director with leadership skills heading a non-profit foundation supporting underprivileged youth.  Karen also serves on the Board of Directors for a women-owned privately held company focusing on sustainability plant-based cleaning agents.  As a guest speaker and lecturer at the Aula Magna Business School in Barcelona, Karen has taught courses on customer-centricity and marketing strategies.

Karen’s endless energy, spirited style, and dedication extend past her core business role. These characteristics stem from a childhood and a collegiate career as a world-class springboard diver and two decades of competitive sailboat racing and USTA tennis.  A San Francisco native with a curiosity to discover other cultures and her early athletic career led her to Spain with a 3-year performing stint resulting in cultural ties and fluency in Catalan and Spanish. Her passion is to give back, instill confidence, and share lessons from her work and life experiences to develop future female leaders.