Karen Francis

Karen brings extensive experience to Vontier as a CEO, director, strategic advisor, and investor, with a deep knowledge of corporate governance and a strong track record of successfully building businesses across multiple industries.

Karen serves as Senior Advisor to TPG Capital. She is also deeply engaged in the mobility and transportation technology ecosystem as an independent director for a number of private-equity and venture-capital funded companies in Silicon Valley, including Metawave, Nauto, and Wind River. Her career experience in the automotive industry (1996 to 2002) includes serving as GM of the Oldsmobile division of General Motors and as VP of Ford Motor Company, where she led the corporate venture capital group.

She previously led education technology company AcademixDirect as CEO (2009 to 2014) and Executive Chairman (2009 to 2017). She served as Chairman and CEO of Publicis & Hal Riney from 2004 to 2007. From 2016 to 2019, Karen served on the Telenav Board of Directors as lead independent director, chair of the Compensation Committee, and a member of the Nominating and Governance Committee. She also served as a director of the Hanover Insurance Group and AutoNation.

Karen holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College, where she served on the Board of Trustees for nine years. She is Chairman of the Board of Positive Coaching Alliance and a Trustee of PGA Reach, the PGA of America foundation. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.