Karen Draper has 30 years of experience leading and transforming finance and operations across global and national organizations, connecting financial discipline to meaningful impact. Her background spans professional services, global design, charter management, and national nonprofits.
Driven by the conviction that expertise scaling businesses should also scale opportunity, Karen made a purposeful decision to deploy her skills where they mattered most, leading her to College Track.
Trained at KPMG in London, she built a strong financial and business foundation before serving as CFO of Gensler, the global design firm. While at Gensler, Karen led revenue growth from $500M to $1B, led the global expansion of the finance function into 10 new countries between 2010 and 2014.
Currently, as Chief Financial & Operating Officer at College Track, Karen oversees a $60M budget, and functions including finance, technology, facilities, risk, operations, and people across 13 sites in four states and DC. She stabilized the organization through two COVID budget cycles and recently oversaw the build-out of the Southeast DC site at St. Elizabeths East and the opening of the Baltimore Ravens College Track Center.
Karen is a Chartered Accountant and a San Francisco Business Times Most Influential Business Woman honoree. She holds a first-class honors degree in Accounting and Financial Management from Sheffield University, England.