Karen Bhatia is a strategic leader working at the intersection of business, law, and policy. Karen’s expertise is in using technology and entrepreneurship as tools to create equitable opportunities and systemic change. She is joining Stanford University’s faculty teaching a course in the Stanford in NYC program on Business Innovation, Technology and Social Change. She previously served as Senior Vice President at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, leading Creative and Applied Tech strategies to promote economic development and entrepreneurship throughout the city. She led NYC’s blockchain strategy, development of the first publicly funded VR/AR Lab in the country, the City’s strategy for ethical development of AI & data and broadband development in the neighborhoods hardest hit by COVID-19. Karen is also an attorney, entrepreneur, and startup advisor. She was the principal of her own law firm advising tech startups on corporate issues, financing, and overall business strategy. As an entrepreneur, Karen founded ActionCam, an educational platform aggregating reliable sources on policy issues, even before trust in media was an issue. Karen also founded Stanford Startups NY, a business network of over 800 Stanford entrepreneurs and investors in the region. She is an advisor to several tech organizations and also on Board of Trustees of Mott Hall, a middle school in the South Bronx. Raised in Queens, NY, and a product of NYC’s public K-12 schools, Karen has a B.A. from Stanford University, a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a J.D. from George Washington University Law School.
