Karen Hardy

About Karen Hardy

Dr. Karen Hardy is a governance, risk oversight and enterprise risk strategist with more than two decades of experience helping complex institutions anticipate, govern, and act on risk. She previously served as Deputy Chief Risk Officer at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she directed and advanced enterprise risk management across a multi-billion-dollar federal portfolio spanning intellectual property, census operations, trade, entrepreneurship, data, broadband technology, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies, including AI.Her work has been widely recognized for shaping how enterprise risk management is understood and applied in public-sector environments. According to the IBM Center for the Business of Government:“Dr. Hardy’s work has been credited with pioneering risk management literature across government, with research and publications that are widely recognized.”Dr. Hardy’s current work focuses on the intersection of risk oversight, human decision-making, and institutional performance. She serves as faculty in a Chief Risk Officer executive program, where she engages directly with senior leaders and curates practitioner insight informing applied research on how risk frameworks are interpreted and acted upon in real organizational settings.She is the creator and architect of enterprise risk frameworks adopted by 39 organizations and an award-winning author published by John Wiley & Sons. As a 2x Federal Bronze Medal recipient, her broader body of work reflects a consistent throughline: translating complex governance and risk concepts into decision-ready practice that strengthens resilience, accountability, and trust.She also convenes ongoing practitioner dialogues with senior risk leaders and scholars, using structured conversations to surface patterns in how enterprise risk frameworks are interpreted and acted upon in real institutional settings.In addition to her governance and risk work, Dr. Hardy has produced nationally recognized media projects, including an Emmy-winning documentary—experience that informs her ability to communicate complex institutional issues with clarity and impact.She is particularly well suited for board, advisory, and committee roles requiring judgment in risk oversight, governance, strategy, and institutional resilience.

Experience

1. Visiting Fellow

   IBM

   Jun 2024 — Present

   An independent business think tank that focuses on management issues in the federal, state, local government.

Education

• Strayer University

  Master of Business Administration - MBA, Finance/Business Administration

• Nova Southeastern University

  Doctor of Education, Organizational Leadership and Human Resource Development

  2002 — 2006

• Hampton University

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), School of Media Production and Journalism (HBCU)