Karen Richardson

Karen Richardson's 20-year career in the software business includes positions as a key player in several well-known and highly successful companies.

She is currently chairman of the board of directors of Hi5 Networks Inc., a San Francisco-based social-networking company. More than 80 million users are registered on the [http://www.hi5.com Hi5] Web site, which is one of the top 20 sites in the world as measured by Internet traffic, according to Alexa Internet [ [http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/hi5.com hi5.com - Traffic Details from Alexa ] ] . Richardson is also an adviser to Silver Lake Partners, a $16 billion private equity investment firm concentrating solely on technology companies.

Prior to Hi5, Richardson was chief executive of E.piphany, a developer of customer relationship management software. She also held senior sales positions at Netscape Communications Corporation from 1995-1998, during which time Netscape's sales grew from $80 million to over $500 million annually. Karen was instrumental in establishing Netscape's presence in the enterprise in verticals such as Telecommunications, Financial Services and Media/Communications. Prior to her position at Netscape, Karen was VP of Worldwide Sales at Collabra Software, Inc.; worked for four years with Lotus Development Corporation in a variety of sales and marketing roles as well as at cc:Mail, and 3Com Corporation.

Karen holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and award distinctions from the Stanford Industrial Engineering Department and the American Institute of Industrial Engineers (AIIE).

Her grandfather was a farmer from Saskatchewan who graduated with a PHD in chemical engineering from Stanford. A mother who came at 16 to Stanford to study mathematics. Her father is also a Stanford alumnus [ Educators Corner: Entrepneurship Education Resources: A girl among geeks http://edcorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1261&author=162 ] .

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