Karen Medhat Bio
Karen is the youngest IBM thought leader and distinguished technical specialist within the Open Group and the Chair of the UK Technical Consultancy Group. Her remarkable journey began at Cairo University, where she graduated with honors and ranked 9th in the faculty of engineering. During her undergraduate years, Karen demonstrated exceptional leadership as a Microsoft Student Partner, leading various initiatives for the benefit of fellow students. She led mega-scale projects, in the public and private sectors, spanning across the globe. Her passion for research led her to pursue an MSc in AI and Wireless Sensor Networks, which she accomplished with honors while simultaneously working full-time at IBM. Karen's dedication and brilliance are evident in her impressive 7 published research papers and a patent, resulting from her MSc research. As she progressed in her career, Karen embraced various roles such as an architect, technical leader, inventor, Redbooks author, and course creator in cutting-edge areas like Cloud, IoT, AI, and blockchain. Her courses have reached and positively impacted thousands of IT professionals, students, and university staff worldwide. Karen leads initiatives for Women in Tech, and engineering students, mentoring and empowering IT professionals along the way. Her exceptional expertise and contributions have earned her a position on the board for IBM L3 Technical Specialist Profession and an editorial role for AI journals and conferences.