Full Name
Karen Van Wagenen
Name of ACA member affiliation or organization
Queen City Angels
Speaker Bio
Karen Van Wagenen is an experienced brand builder and expert innovation guide with a
proven track record in strategic planning, creative problem solving, and idea generation.
Her passion is helping business teams discover new insights and create innovative business
ideas/solutions.
Karen is Principal Owner of Brand Building Innovation, LLC. She also served as Innovation
Catalyst at Makewaves, Inc., a social innovation consultancy.
Karen enjoyed a successful 28-year career at P&G in Marketing and Consumer & Market
Knowledge (CMK). At P&G she built her expertise in new business development in Health Care
NBD, Corporate New Ventures/Future Works, and P&G’s Professional Products Group. As CMK
leader of P&G’s Corporate New Ventures organization Karen created and led an idea
generation process designed to identify, vet, and develop new business opportunities outside
the scope of P&G’s current categories.
The last 8 years of her career at P&G, Karen worked as an expert Innovation Guide at P&G’s
Innovation GYM where she designed and facilitated customized innovation workshops for
business teams across the globe to help address key priority business needs such as Innovation
Strategy, Product & Commercial Innovation, Brand Equity, Value Reframing, Insight Discovery,
and Annual Marketing Plan Development. To enable global scaling and availability of
workshops, she has trained scores of facilitators both inside and outside P&G.
Karen has been an active member of Queen City Angels since 2019 and enjoys mentoring,
vetting and supporting innovative start-ups. She serves on the Development Committee of
Hope Springs Institute, a non-profit retreat center, and is a member of Cincinnati’s Impact 100.
Karen holds an MBA from Miami University, Design Thinking certification from Stanford University
and is a certified Cultural Navigator. Her formal training also includes The Grove Strategic
Visioning, Rolf Smith’s School for Innovators, IDEO Creative Problem Solving & Prototyping,
Edward De Bono Lateral Thinking & Creativity, and LEGO Serious Play.
proven track record in strategic planning, creative problem solving, and idea generation.
Her passion is helping business teams discover new insights and create innovative business
ideas/solutions.
Karen is Principal Owner of Brand Building Innovation, LLC. She also served as Innovation
Catalyst at Makewaves, Inc., a social innovation consultancy.
Karen enjoyed a successful 28-year career at P&G in Marketing and Consumer & Market
Knowledge (CMK). At P&G she built her expertise in new business development in Health Care
NBD, Corporate New Ventures/Future Works, and P&G’s Professional Products Group. As CMK
leader of P&G’s Corporate New Ventures organization Karen created and led an idea
generation process designed to identify, vet, and develop new business opportunities outside
the scope of P&G’s current categories.
The last 8 years of her career at P&G, Karen worked as an expert Innovation Guide at P&G’s
Innovation GYM where she designed and facilitated customized innovation workshops for
business teams across the globe to help address key priority business needs such as Innovation
Strategy, Product & Commercial Innovation, Brand Equity, Value Reframing, Insight Discovery,
and Annual Marketing Plan Development. To enable global scaling and availability of
workshops, she has trained scores of facilitators both inside and outside P&G.
Karen has been an active member of Queen City Angels since 2019 and enjoys mentoring,
vetting and supporting innovative start-ups. She serves on the Development Committee of
Hope Springs Institute, a non-profit retreat center, and is a member of Cincinnati’s Impact 100.
Karen holds an MBA from Miami University, Design Thinking certification from Stanford University
and is a certified Cultural Navigator. Her formal training also includes The Grove Strategic
Visioning, Rolf Smith’s School for Innovators, IDEO Creative Problem Solving & Prototyping,
Edward De Bono Lateral Thinking & Creativity, and LEGO Serious Play.
Speaking At
