Karen L. Hawkins

Karen L. Hawkins is the Chief Marketing Officer of IEEE. She is the leader of the Marketing, Sales, and Design organization, a cross-functional and highly talented team of professionals spanning sales, marketing, communications, product management, digital innovation, and customer engagement for IEEE worldwide. Karen and the team bring their expertise and diverse global marketing, commercial, and general management experience in the marketing and sale of intellectual property, creating and executing strategies to help further IEEE’s mission through developing talented professionals in a team environment, driving global expansion, facilitating new product development, and raising the visibility of the engineering profession.

Her career began in book publishing, serving in editorial and sales roles with Little, Brown and Company, Delmar Publishers, and John Wiley and Sons, Inc. During her 20-year tenure at IEEE she has held leadership positions in the Marketing, Sales, and Publications groups. Most recently Karen led the product design department responsible for the development, management, and marketing of new and existing information products. This team works to diversify and grow IEEE’s portfolio of products and services consistent with the IEEE mission.

Karen earned a B.S. in Communications from Boston University. She served on the Association of Learned and Scholarly and Publishers, North America Steering Committee, and co-chaired their Continuing Education Committee. She was also a member of the Purdue University Press Management Advisory Board.