Karen Watson is an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and experienced Global HR Executive who has coached C-Suite leaders in Fortune 100 and mid-sized companies across the pharmaceutical, financial services, aerospace, and healthcare industries. She started her career as a respiratory therapist and progressed through the leadership ranks of healthcare delivery to hospital administration, Global HR Vice President, and now, Leadership Development Consultant.
Committed to facilitating a sense of belonging, Karen brings her extensive experience as an HR executive and healthcare operations leader to consult with leaders and organizations to create inclusive, high-performance cultures that yield extraordinary employee engagement and business results. She led the human capital strategy for several large-scale business transformations, managed global teams, assisted post-merger integrations, and orchestrated numerous leadership transitions.
Before becoming a consultant and coach, Karen was a Sr. Business Partner and the Head of HR for the Retail Investment Group at Vanguard, leading two monumental business transformations involving 3,000 employees that resulted in dramatic improvements in operational efficiency. Prior to Vanguard, she was HR Vice President at Johnson & Johnson and CSL Behring and achieved noteworthy results in HR leadership positions with Wyeth, Pfizer, and Commerce Bank.
Her extensive experience in business transformations, leadership transitions / new leader installation, culture, change, talent development, and succession planning aid in her coaching that causes clients to explore their needs and aspirations on a deeper level, navigate barriers, consider different perspectives, and expand possibilities to achieve their goals.
Karen completed Georgetown University’s prestigious leadership coaching program in 2019, earned an M. S. in Administration from West Chester University, and obtained a B. S. in Respiratory Therapy from York College of Pennsylvania. She is also certified in Hogan’s Personality Assessment Suite and Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI).