Overview

Gender

female

Karen C. Francis joined AcademixDirect in 2009 and serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. She brings a valuable combination of marketing, technology and educational experience to the education marketing company. She was most recently Chairman and CEO of Publicis & Hal Riney, an advertising agency based in San Francisco and owned by global holding company Publicis in Paris, France. Prior to that, she held senior executive positions with Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Internet Capital Group and Bain & Company management consulting.

Karen serves on the Board of Directors of Mamapedia.com and has contributed as an advisor to technology companies for the last ten years, including comScore, XL Tech Group, Redloop Media and Scanscout. She also served as a member of the Board of Trustees for Dartmouth College for nine years, honing her expertise in the trends and issues facing higher education today.

The owner of a zinfandel vineyard in Healdsburg, California, Karen is an avid wine collector and is a member of the Napa Valley Vine Trails Coalition. She enjoys hiking and cycling.

Karen holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College. She studied at l'Université de Toulouse, France and speaks French.