Meet Karen Howard: A Strategic Thinker With a Can-Do Attitude

Editor’s Note: This is the twelfth in our We are EM (Monkeys Are People Too) series.

A Product Marketer Par Excellence

Nobody makes an introduction quite like Karen Howard. If there’s a product the consumer, small business, or enterprise market needs to know about, she’s the person to introduce it. From market strategy to pricing, competitive landscaping to designing a go-to-market plan, there’s no facet of the product launch space that Karen hasn’t mastered. Karen’s industry background is wide-ranging, but high-tech is a particular sweet spot. Karen takes satisfaction in bringing a new product to market that can help people improve their lives and their businesses. Clients like Intuit, Yahoo!, Adobe, and Wells Fargo have been more than happy to benefit from her strategic thinking and can-do attitude.

Mile-High Raised, High-Tech Centered

Raised in Denver, Colorado, Karen earned her MBA at Duke University, where she became passionate about high-tech marketing. After graduation, she spent three years in Sprint’s Executive Leadership Program, before joining the Bay Area’s burgeoning dot-com boom. She started her own consulting business in 2002 and hasn’t looked back since. Her firm specializes in consumer technology, enterprise software, and solutions development, but there’s no sector that can’t benefit from Karen’s peerless expertise in strategic planning, product launches, marketing program management, and sales tool development and delivery.

An Intrepid Marketer, An Inspired Group Leader, A Consummate Pro

Karen believes you should be passionate about what you do and give 110 percent when you do it. She recognizes that marketing is an extremely fluid field and works hard to keep on top of the latest trends, and to put them to work on behalf of her clients. She particularly enjoys projects that allow her to capitalize on both her marketing and leadership skills. A recent relaunch of the QuickBooks Online product lineup for Intuit is one example of a project where Karen was able to come in on the ground floor, collaborate cross-functionally with a number of different teams and exceed the company’s expectations.

Time Off: An Active Lifestyle, With a Great American Novel on Her Mind

Karen’s Colorado upbringing all but ensured she would adopt an active lifestyle. As a Bay Area resident, with one of the most famous wine regions in the world just up the road, Karen enjoys tennis and golf as much as she enjoys a big, jammy zinfandel. A talented writer, there may even be a Great American Novel in Karen’s future. She just needs to find the time write it!