Karen Richardson

Karen Richardson is an American executive. Her 30-year career in the software business includes positions as a key player in several well-known and highly successful companies.

In November 2011, Richardson joined the board of directors of BT Group plc (NYSE: BT). The company, which has operations in more than 170 countries, is one of the world's largest telecommunications services companies. She was appointed to the board of Exponent (NASDAQ: EXPO), a Silicon Valley-based engineering and scientific consulting company, in 2013. In 2014, Richardson joined the boards of Ayasdi, a Palo Alto-based software developer that helps organizations use topological data analysis to solve problems in life sciences, health care, financial services, and other fields, and HackerRank, which has developed a platform for technology companies to evaluate candidates' programming skills. In 2015, she was named among the "100 most influential women in tech" by a technology industry website.

Additionally, Richardson serves on the board of the San Francisco Opera, which she joined as part of a push by that institution to include more technology leaders. She also serves on the advisory board of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University.

Previously, Richardson served as chief executive of E.piphany, a developer of customer relationship management software (former NASDAQ ticker symbol EPNY). She also held several senior sales positions at Netscape Communications Corp. (former NASDAQ ticker symbol NSCP) from 1995–1998, during which time Netscape's sales grew from $80 million to over $500 million annually. As executive vice president of sales at the browser pioneer, Richardson concentrated on key vertical markets such as telecommunications and financial services; she also helped the company develop new markets, including e-commerce, consumer Internet access and enterprise applications. Prior to her position at Netscape, Richardson was VP of Worldwide Sales at Collabra Software, Inc., and worked for four years with Lotus Development Corporation in a variety of sales and marketing roles as well as at cc:Mail and 3Com Corporation.

Richardson is a former adviser to Silver Lake Partners, a private equity investment firm that built successful investments in Skype, Seagate Technology and Alibaba Group Holding Co. Ltd., a leading Chinese technology venture.

She has also served on several corporate boards. Richardson was a board member of VirtuOz until January 2013, when the company was purchased by Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN); she was on the advisory board of Proofpoint Inc.(NASDAQ: PFPT), a provider of email security and compliance products that went public in April 2012; and was chairwoman of the board of directors of San Francisco-based Hi5 Networks Inc. from 2008 until December 2011, when the company was purchased by social networker Tagged Inc. She also sat on the board of i2, a Silver Lake-owned developer of investigative analysis software, until the company was sold to IBM in October 2011. At the time of the announcement, i2 announced that 12 of the top 20 retail banks used the company's software.

Richardson holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and award distinctions from the Stanford Industrial Engineering Department and the American Institute of Industrial Engineers (AIIE). She is married to Jon Rubinstein, former senior vice president and general manager of Hewlett-Packard Company’s Palm Global Business Unit and former senior vice president of Apple Inc.'s iPod division.

Her grandfather was a farmer from Saskatchewan who graduated with a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Stanford; her mother entered Stanford at 16 to study mathematics, and her father is also a Stanford alumnus.