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Karen Webster

Biography

Karen is the CEO of MPD and has worked extensively with some of the leading players in the payments, B2B and technology sectors to architect, ignite and commercialize innovation. She also serves as a member of the board for several emerging companies in the payments, mobile and technology sectors, including PaySimple. Her work is focused on helping these innovators develop and implement sustainable business strategies. For this project, she would provide overall project direction – ensuring that deadlines are met and project quality is maintained, and be actively involved in the development of ignition strategies and go to market programs, including marketing and messaging.

Karen is a frequent speaker and author of numerous articles on the sources of innovation, strategy, loyalty, product design/bundling and pricing and platform strategies. She is a frequent keynote speaker on these topics and, for example, has moderated or spoken at CTIA for many years. Karen was a key contributor to Catalyst Code: The Secrets Behind the World’s Most Dynamic Companies, Harvard Business School Press, 2007 (written by MPD’s David Evans and Richard Schmalensee) and is credited with directing the research for the book and devising its trademarked 6-step Framework. Karen also served as an adjunct faculty member at her alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, where she developed and taught graduate level courses on business-to business marketing.

Karen has a long history of consulting experience, having served as the Managing Director of Global Marketing and Planning for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ US$6 billion management consulting practice. She led the firm’s eBusiness Strategic Marketing taskforce and created the strategic positioning and go-to-market approach for this firm-wide initiative. Karen later served as Chief Operating Officer for a US$125 million consulting subsidiary that is part of the MMC family of companies. In 2002, Karen launched her own B2B strategic marketing consultancy which later combined with MPD. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, where she also holds a M.S. in Marketing.

Karen’s recent work has focused on developing operational ignition strategies for large multi-sided platform players, specifically focused on devising the product, pricing/incentive and go to market plans to achieving critical mass associated with the introduction of new products in a very competitive marketplace.