Karen Kranz is a strategic marketing executive with extensive experience in developing innovative, large-scale marketing solutions for CPG, financial services, technology and QSR brands. Her experience includes strategic planning and qualitative research for global advertising agencies including J. Walter Thompson, DDB and Y&R and has held senior brand communications positions with Fort James Corporation’s commercial division, Citi Diners Club and First Chicago. With a keen interest in the role corporate social responsibility plays in the value of brands, she has earned sustainability credentials including sustainability reporting with The Global Reporting Institute (GRI), C2C Catalyst Certification and The Natural Step, Canada’s premier sustainability framework. Karen is formally trained in design planning and ethnography at Institute of Design in Chicago, and brings a user-centric, consumer voice approach to her marketing strategies.