After growing up and attending college in her home state of Pennsylvania, Karen moved to Boston, MA to attend Graduate School. Upon completion she began work at a marketing agency where she fell in love with Retail Marketing.
Karen joined TJX in 1988 as an Advertising Manager focused on the TJMaxx brand. At the time TJMaxx had around 200 stores. Fast forward a number of years and various Marketing roles and she was promoted to Chief Marketing Officer in 2012. Karen had the opportunity to be part of amazing growth within a company full of energy, passion and amazing peers – from acquisitions (Marshalls 1994), to starting up companies (HomeGoods 1999), to expanding the business to Europe and beyond (TKMaxx 1994) and many more, her time at TJX has been everything she could ask of a career.
Today TJX is the leading global off-price apparel and home fashions retailer. Ranked 85 among Fortune 500 companies, at the end of fiscal year 2019 the company had over $39 Billion in revenue, and operated over 4,300 stores in 49 states, nine countries located on three continents, as well as three e-commerce sites, and employed approximately 270,000 Associates. They operate TJMaxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Sierra and Homesense in the U.S.; Winners, HomeSense and Marshalls in Canada, and TKMaxx in U.K., Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria, the Netherlands and Australia as well as Homesense in U.K. and Ireland.
Having been a part of various leadership teams at TJX and having a front row seat to over $30 Billion in revenue growth has not only been a privilege, it’s been a ton of fun. Karen has enjoyed every minute, and cherishes the relationships, learnings, and laughs she has had along the way.
Karen has often said that she’s had the most fortunate career, but equally proud of the balance achieved being a leader in a growing public company with her most important role in life…being a mother of two and a wife to her husband of 27 years. As her children are nearing adulthood, she is excited to take the time to travel, spend time on the water, and continue her passions, both in, and outside of work.
She was pretty certain that she had found what she wanted to do, at the place she wanted to be, when she joined TJX in 1988 – and thankfully, Karen was right.
