Karen Bolyston

boylstonKaren draws from her 25 years of senior-level and executive development consulting experience to consult with senior leaders on the intersection of strategy and leadership. She brings a systemic and collaborative approach to the design and implementation of strategy execution, culture change, strategic leadership development, talent/succession planning and executive coaching.

Karen advises and coaches CEOs and facilitates executive teams to optimize their individual and collective capacity to lead their organizations amidst rapidly changing business environments. Her work focuses on successful execution of business strategy through alignment of organization structure, culture, and people—particularly senior leaders and their teams.

Her clients span diverse industries including pharmaceutical and biotech, financial services, energy, health systems/academic medical centers, defense, telecommunications, and consumer products.

Before starting her own firm, Karen was a Managing Director at Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE), where she led over 25 client teams in creating customized strategy and executive development solutions. Using cutting-edge learning practices, she partnered with clients to design new leader architectures and development experiences tightly linked to new business strategy.

Karen’s professional career roles and affiliations include a series of #1 ranked companies in their respective education and consulting fields.

  • Duke CE’s Global Educator Network—an Executive Coach (active).
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG)—a Senior Engagement Manager in the Organization Practice leading strategic change programs during mergers and acquisitions.
  • Sibson Consulting—a Senior Consultant with this human capital consulting firm focused on change management and talent development.

Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)—a Director of the Organization Leadership Practice, where she led (vs. developed and managed) the change leadership and executive team innovation practice areas. At CCL, Karen facilitated and coached over 100 executive teams from major global companies.

Education/Training

Licensed industrial-organizational psychologist

University of South Carolina
Ph.D in Psychology
MBA, Human Resources

University of Connecticut
MA, Counseling Psychology

Fairfield University
B.A., Psychology

Expertise and certification in over 15 executive and leadership development assessment surveys:

  • MBTI
  • FIRO-B
  • Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI)
  • Thomas Kilmann Conflict Inventory (TKI)
  • Change Style Indicator (CSI), Team Development Inventory (TDS)
  • Benchmarks
  • Skill Scope
  • Leadership Versatility Index (LVI)
  • PDI/Executive Profiler
  • California Psychological Inventory (CPI)

Professional Associations

American Psychological Association (APA)
Active member (taking courses through APA Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology division)

  • Energy psychology
  • Mindfulness
  • Neuroscience workshops

Organization Development Network (National and State)
Active member

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