Karen Sawarna

Karen Sawarna, PMP has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Karen is currently working as the Global Oncology Clinical Development Director and Clinical Operations Asset Lead at GSK since October 2022. Prior to that, they served as the Director of Clinical Operations at Akeso, Inc. from June 2020 to October 2022.

Before their role at Akeso, Karen worked at IQVIA for 14 years, starting as a Clinical Team Lead from May 2006 to January 2011. Karen then served as a Senior Clinical Project Manager from January 2011 to March 2018, managing global oncology projects. Their responsibilities included sponsor communication, project cost and timeline reporting, and collaboration with sponsors from various countries. Finally, they held the position of Associate Director of Clinical Project Management (Biotech Unit) from March 2018 to June 2020. In this role, they oversaw clinical trial customer portfolios with a focus on Asia Pacific biotech companies entering the oncology early phase clinical trial landscape. Karen also analyzed and reviewed budgets for studies within their assigned portfolio.

Karen has also held positions at Pfizer as a Senior Clinical Research Associate from February 2004 to May 2005, and at Covance as a Clinical Research Associate from June 2002 to February 2004.

Karen Sawarna, PMP, holds a Bachelor of Science Honors (BScH) degree in Life Sciences from Queen's University, which they obtained between 1994 and 1998. Karen has also acquired additional certifications in Leadership Blind Spots from LinkedIn in November 2021, Developing Your Emotional Intelligence from Lynda.com in May 2019, and Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute in March 2016.