Karen Richardson
Karen Richardson's 25-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.[1] The company, which has operations in more than 170 countries, is one of the world's largest telecommunications services companies.[2] She joined the board of Convercent, a Colorado-based provider of governance, risk management and compliance software, in 2012.[3]
Richardson was chairwoman of the board of directors of San Francisco-based Hi5 Networks Inc.[4] from 2008 until December 2011, when the company was purchased by social networker Tagged Inc.[5] Hi5, a social game network with 230 million users,[6] had once been one of the top three social networking companies, behind Facebook and MySpace.[5]
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.[7] 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.[8] At the time of the announcement, i2 announced that 12 of the top 20 retail banks used the company's software.[9] She sat on the board of VirtuOz[10] until January 2013, when the company was purchased by Nuance Communications (Nasdaq: NUAN).[11]
Additionally, Richardson serves on the advisory boards of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program[12] and the Mita Institute and Tech Accelerator (MITA), a venture capital fund that invests in Mexican and Latin American companies.[13] She formerly served on the advisory board of Proofpoint Inc.(Nasdaq: PFPT), a provider of email security and compliance products[14] that went public in April 2012.[15]
Prior to joining Hi5, Richardson was chief executive of E.piphany, a developer of customer relationship management software. She also held several senior sales positions at Netscape Communications Corp. 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 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, 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.[16]
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.[17]
References
- ^ Technology guru joins BT as new director, 2011-10-19
- ^ "Our company". BT Group plc. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
- ^ "Leadership". Convercent. Retrieved 2013-02-08.
- ^ Social Networking Site Hi5 Nearly Doubles Monthly Visitors, InformationWeek, August 15, 2008
- ^ a b Tagged Acquires Facebook Competitor Hi5, The Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2011
- ^ Tagged Acquires Social Network Competitor hi5, Digital Media Wire
{{citation}}: Text "December 15, 2011" ignored (help) - ^ Meet Silver Lake: The Hot Private Equity Firm of the Moment, The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2011
- ^ IBM Completes i2 Acquisition to Expand Big Data Analytics Portfolio for Smarter Cities, 2011-10-05
- ^ http://www.pcworld.com/article/239228/ibm_acquiring_i2_for_criminal_mastermind_software.html
{{citation}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/virtuoz-names-eric-hahn-and-karen-richardson-to-board-of-directors-65724727.html
{{citation}}: Missing or empty|title=(help); Text "VirtuOz press release, 2010-02-12" ignored (help) - ^ Confirmed: Nuance Has Bought Virtual Assistant Specialist VirtuOz To Ramp Up Its Enterprise Services, 2013-01-10
- ^ http://stvp.stanford.edu/about/advisory-board.html
{{citation}}: Missing or empty|title=(help); Text "Stanford Technology Ventures Program Advisory Board Web site" ignored (help) - ^ http://mitainstitute.com/mita-team/advisory-board/, retrieved February 5, 2013
{{citation}}: Missing or empty|title=(help); Text "MITA Advisory Board Web site" ignored (help) - ^ http://www.proofpoint.com/news-and-events/press-releases/pressdetail.php?PressReleaseID=56
{{citation}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ "Proofpoint and Infoblox Rise on Debuts". The New York Times. April 20, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ^ Perry, Tekla (September 2008). "From Podfather to Palm's Pilot". IEEE Spectrum.
- ^ Educators Corner: Entrepreneurship Education Resources: A girl among geeks http://edcorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1261&author=162