Boathouse Welcomes New Founder/President Karen Baker, Expands to Washington D.C.

Karen will join the Boston-based marketing agency and brings 25 years of business-building expertise

(BOSTON, MA) - Marketing and technology agency Boathouse today welcomes Founder/President Karen Baker. In her new role, Karen will establish the Washington D.C. office as Boathouse continues to expand nationally into high-intellect markets where the firm can help clients raise the bar in their marketing efforts by leveraging strategy, creativity, media, A.I. and analytics.

“Karen is an entrepreneur, a business owner, a relationship builder, a teacher and an expert in design thinking,”  said John Connors, CEO and founder of Boathouse Group, Inc. “Welcoming Karen to the team is an exciting step in our ability to help more clients. Karen has led her own firm for 25+ years and will be a powerful new voice as we harness the positive change of the pandemic to migrate from being a regional firm to a national firm.”

Karen Baker brings more than 25 years of marketing and strategy expertise to Boathouse, specializing in design research, strategic planning and marketing. In her new role as founder/president, Karen will lead the team and bring the expertise and deep resources of Boathouse to bear for the unique needs of clients in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area market. She has experience working directly with C-suite entrepreneurs and executives and their key stakeholders on internal strategy branding and national advertising campaigns, and has always focused on being a successful business person and a contributing member of her community. Karen’s roster of clients included the National Park Service, Minority Business Development Agency, Industrial Bank, Pernod Ricard, and Think Local First DC. 

“Boathouse is redefining the industry and sets itself apart from competitors by offering a strategic capability built on creativity, technology/A.I. and analytics,” said Karen Baker, founder/president of Boathouse Washington D.C. “It’s incredibly inspiring to be surrounded by a team of accountable, relentless thinkers and I look forward to helping the firm think about how to expand nationally in a way that is true to their way of working.”

In addition to spearheading successful marketing campaigns, Karen has been a professor for over 15 years instructing at the undergraduate and graduate levels at George Washington University, American Public University and NewSchool of Architecture and Design. She also specializes in creativity coaching for entrepreneurs and business owners. 

Boasting several accolades for her work, Karen was  part of the PCMA’s 2018-2022 Best in Class program for her digital media strategies workshop and is a four-time grantee of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship. She also received the first DCCAH Curatorial Practice Grant in 2018, which led her to create the critically acclaimed, socially engaged art exhibition, Anacostia Unmapped 2.0. Karen is also currently serving as the Co-Executive Director for Think Local First DC.

Dedicated to fostering continuous education, Karen received her bachelor of arts in political science from Howard University, a master’s in administration in event management from The George Washington University School of Business, a master’s in arts in design thinking from the Savannah College of Art and Design, School of Design and was part of the inaugural cohort for a MFA in social practice with a focus in public policy, and is currently a Doctorate of Design candidate at North Carolina State University, College of Design.

About Boathouse: 

Boathouse is a full-service marketing and technology agency. We move from strategy to execution fast and seamlessly, helping to drive real impact, the kind that is respected in the C-Suite + the boardroom. We bring forward the top marketing, media, creative, and analytics brains in the country who leverage the most modern tools and technology to drive insight and measure performance. We research and study how to make CMOs more successful. Our disciplined approach of combining strategy & execution generates greater creativity, greater performance, greater efficiency, and greater productivity...and more fun.  Boathouse is more than a name. It’s a performance mindset.