Karen Cone

Karen Cone has had a long and successful career in the technology and financial services industries. Karen began their career in 1974 at IBM, where they served on the launch team to open offices in the Soviet Union, and held sales roles in the New York financial sector. Karen then moved to Japan, where they were product manager with the team that opened up the first IBM China offices and served as operations manager for the Asia/South Pacific Region. In 1993, they joined Gartner as SVP, General Manager & Gartner International Board Director, and built a new Web presence from the ground up that grew into Gartner’s primary delivery channel for research. In 2003, they joined MasterCard as Global Practice Leader as part of the strategy to build an independent consulting and research business. In 2004, they became CEO & Board Director of TowerGroup, a research and advisory services firm focused at the intersection of information technology and financial services. Under their leadership, Towergroup grew its research coverage and client base significantly and expanded internationally, leading to a successful sale to CEB. In 2018, they joined Alloy as Advisory Board Director, a leading-edge FinTech provider of identity verification API’s, compliance and fraud protection. Karen served as Advisor through Alloy's successful Series B. In the same year, they also joined Mastersfund as Venture Partner. In 2021, they joined Fyrii™ as Board Director and Pagedip as Board Observer & Advisor. Pagedip revolutionizes content creation, document sharing, and measuring engagement in a single app.

Karen Cone completed a BA in Sino Soviet Studies at Franklin & Marshall College in the USA. Karen then participated in a United Nations Exchange Program at Saint Petersburg State University in Russia. Finally, they were awarded an Honorary MBA Professorship at Yunnan Normal University in China.