Karen Richardson

Karen Richardson is an American industrial engineer and business executive. She currently serves as an independent non-executive director of the BP board, a position she has held since January 2021.^[1]

Karen Richardson
Karen Richardson Wiki Image from BP
Citizenship	American
Education	B.S. in Industrial Engineering, Stanford University
Known for	Executive leadership in the software industry
Awards	Stanford Industrial Engineering Department Award, American Institute of Industrial Engineers (AIIE) Distinction

Education

Richardson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University. She received awards from the Stanford Industrial Engineering Department and the American Institute of Industrial Engineers.^[2]

Career

Richardson serves on several corporate boards, including BP,^[3] Exponent,^[4] and States Title.^[5]

Throughout her career, she served as a board member in several companies, including BT Group (2011–2018),^[6] Worldpay Group plc (2016–2019), and Hi5 Networks Inc. (2008–2011).^[7]

Richardson held board roles at VirtuOz^[8] (until 2013), Ayasdi (until 2021),^[9] HackerRank, i2 Technologies,^[10] and the San Francisco Opera.^[11]

In addition to corporate boards, Richardson has served on advisory boards for Proofpoint Inc. and the Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University.^[12] Moreover, she has also served on the advisory board of Silver Lake Partners.

Apart from serving as the chief executive of Epiphany, Inc., she held senior sales positions at Netscape Communications from 1995 to 1998, focusing on telecommunications and financial services sectors.^[13]

Currently, Richardson serves as an independent non-executive director at BP p.l.c., where she serves as a member of the audit committee.^[14] Furthermore, she also works as the lead independent director at Exponent, Inc., having re-joined the board in early 2023 after previously serving as a board member from 2013 to June 2022.^[15][16] Additionally, she is a partner at Artius Capital Partners^[17] and a non-executive director at Artius II Acquisition Inc.^[18][19][20]

Personal life

Richardson's grandfather was a farmer from Saskatchewan who graduated with a PhD in chemistry from Stanford University. Her mother entered Stanford at age sixteen to study mathematics, and her father is also a Stanford alumnus.^[21] She is married to Jon Rubinstein,^[22] former Co-CEO of investment firm Bridgewater Associates.^[23]