She is currently chairman of the board of directors of Hi5 Networks Inc., a San Francisco-based social-networking company. More than 80 million users are registered on the Hi5 Web site, which is one of the top 20 sites in the world as measured by Internet traffic, according to Alexa Internet. Richardson is also an adviser to Silver Lake Partners, a $16 billion private equity investment firm concentrating solely on technology companies.

Prior to Hi5, Richardson was chief executive of E.piphany, a developer of customer relationship management software. She also held senior sales positions at Netscape Communications Corporation from 1995-1998, during which time Netscape's sales grew from $80 million to over $500 million annually. Karen was instrumental in establishing Netscape's presence in the enterprise in verticals such as Telecommunications, Financial Services and Media/Communications. Prior to her position at Netscape, Karen was VP of Worldwide Sales at Collabra Software, Inc.; worked for four years with Lotus Development Corporation in a variety of sales and marketing roles as well as at cc:Mail, and 3Com Corporation.

Karen holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and award distinctions from the Stanford Industrial Engineering Department and the American Institute of Industrial Engineers (AIIE).

Her grandfather was a farmer from Saskatchewan who graduated with a PHD in chemical engineering from Stanford. A mother who came at 16 to Stanford to study mathematics. Her father is also a Stanford alumnus .

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