Karen joined Palisade in 2016 as a senior member of the investment team with responsibility for acquiring and managing infrastructure assets. She has since been appointed Managing Director and oversees various aspects of Palisade’s business in addition to her investment management responsibilities across a range of infrastructure sectors. She is also a member of the Palisade Impact Investment Committee.

Karen has extensive governance experience and is a Director on the boards of Palisade Investment Partners, Palisade Impact, Palisade Real Assets and several infrastructure assets. She is also a Non-Executive Director and the Deputy Chair of the Clean Energy Council and a Non-Executive Director of Life Education NSW.

Immediately prior to joining Palisade, Karen was a Senior Vice President at Macquarie in London for 5 years where she focused on principal investments in renewable energy projects including solar, wind, biomass and waste-to-energy. Prior to this, Karen was a Director at the Australian Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and a lead negotiator at the UN international climate change negotiations. Karen also spent almost 4 years as a commercial lawyer in the Baker & McKenzie global climate change and renewables practice, after commencing her career as a graduate engineer with CH2M Hill (now Jacobs).

Karen holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (1^st Class Honours) and Bachelor of Laws (1^st Class Honours) from the University of Sydney, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.