Karen E. Wilson
Founder, GV Partners

Karen is the founder of GV Partners, a firm she created in 2004. She also works as a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation. Over the past years she has focused on entrepreneurship education, policy and financing (venture capital) working with private sector firms, international organizations, foundations and universities, primarily in Europe. She has spoken on these topics at conferences across Europe and has authored and published several papers.

Prior to founding GV Partners, Karen worked in the venture capital industry. Previously, she was part of the senior management team at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland and, before that, served as the Executive Director of the Global Initiative at Harvard Business School. Her past experience also includes management consulting, primarily in financial services, as well as investment banking.

Karen has served on a number of boards and coached many start-ups. She currently serves as an advisor and board member of the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER) and a member of the European Leadership Council for Harvard Business School.

Karen received, with honors, a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Management from Carnegie Mellon University as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School.