Karen Wilson
Former Non-resident Fellow,
Karen joined Bruegel in September 2012. She has worked in the Structural Policy Division of the Science, Technology and Industry Directorate at the OECD since 2009 and served as a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation from 2008-2012. She is an Associate Fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University and a Visiting Lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. Karen is the founder of GV Partners, a research and consulting firm she created in 2004. Her work at Bruegel focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation.
Karen is a Board Member and Advisor of the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER), a member of the European Leadership Council for Harvard Business School, a Research and Policy Advisor for the U.K. Prince’s Trust Youth Business International (YBI), and an expert on the European Commission Horizon 2020 Access to Risk Finance Advisory Group. She is the author of a number of publications on entrepreneurship and finance.
Prior to founding GV Partners, Karen worked with a leading international venture capital firm. Previously, she was part of the senior management team at the World Economic Forum and, before that, served as the Executive Director of the Global Initiative at Harvard Business School. She received, with honors, a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Featured work
From start-up to scale-up: examining public policies for the financing of high-growth ventures
What are the challenges of financing scale-ups, and how can long-term public policies support the creation of a better scale-up environment?
Seven years after the crisis: intersecting perspectives
This joint publication brings together the papers produced as part of the first collaboration between Bruegel and the OCP Policy Center. Within the th
Competing with big data
There is plenty of hype around big data. But does it only offer operational advantages, or can it provide firms with sustainable competitive advantag
Youth unemployment in the Mediterranean region and its long-term implications
Youth unemployment in the Mediterranean region has consequences for the whole of Europe. Tackling youth unemployment in the region must continue to be