Karen Dawes

Karen A. Dawes (MBA, Harvard University – concentration in marketing and corporate strategy; MA & BA, Simmons College – English and Communications) is the President and Founder of Knowledgeable Decisions, LLC. With 20+ years of commercial and executive management experience in the BioPharma industry, Karen brings to clients a valuable and unique combination of competencies.

Karen’s industry experience began with 10 years of commercial and executive management at Pfizer, where she gained increasing responsibility in product management, development, and strategy leading to her position as Vice-President, Marketing, Pratt Division.

Karen then moved to biotech pioneer Genetics Institute (GI), where, as Chief Commercial Officer, she built the company’s initial commercial operations including strategic and operational marketing, sales, medical affairs, public relations, and market research. At GI she and her team launched the company’s first two products – BeneFix for Factor IX replacement in hemophilia and Neumega for the treatment of thrombocytopenia in cancer patients.

When GI was acquired by Wyeth, Karen moved to the new parent company as Senior Vice-President, Global Strategic Marketing with responsibility for strategic product development and global marketing. In 1998, Karen moved to Bayer Corporation as Division Head for the company’s $2 billion U.S. Pharmaceuticals Division. She founded Knowledgeable Decisions in 2003.

Throughout her career, Karen has been a key player in the successful development, launch and marketing of products in the Cardiovascular, Metabolic, Infectious Disease, CNS, Oncology and Women’s and Men’s Health areas, including five products that each exceeded sales of $1 billion dollars.

Karen is Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Repligen Corporation, and a member of the Boards of Directors of Depomed, Inc., Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals, and Seaside Therapeutics. She is also a founder of The ProPharmex Group, a consortium of independent consultants who focus on strategic development and commercialization in BioPharma. Karen is a frequent speaker to academic and industry groups.