Karen Boothe-Begly is the Founder and CEO of Engage Forward LLC. a professional management and development training company based in Charlotte, NC.  Engage Forward develops and delivers impartial, independent educational resources for professionals, communities, business and trade association members.  Karen focuses on sharing her deep financial, strategic and leadership experience gained almost 25 years in the finance and insurance industry with clients committed to transforming and empowering their sphere of influence.   She is an accomplished senior executive, entrepreneur, consultant and thought leader. She has worked with and for multiple Fortune 500 companies.

Prior to starting her own business, Karen worked as an Institutional Relationship Manager at Vanguard. She managed institutional clients, leading cross-functional teams evaluating plan designs, identifying investment opportunities, and improving financial profitability across portfolio with total assets of $500 million and upwards of $2 billion.  

Before Vanguard, Karen developed an executive career within AXA Equitable rising from Senior Financial Analyst to Vice-President of Financial Analysis, Strategy and Reporting gaining increasing leadership responsibility in less than six years. She was a core member of the Executive Management team within the Funds Management Group responsible for over $80 Billion assets under management.  

Karen Boothe-Begly graduated Boston University with a BS in Business Administration in 1993 and has since gone on to complete an MBA with St. John’s University.

Karen has remained active within her local community. She designed a program for Charlotte Workforce development organization emphasizing awareness of the need to preserve retirement assets.  Karen mentors many young professionals and advocates the importance of education, financial literacy, and fundamental money management.  She sat on the Research and Pension committees of the Investment Company Institute, the Advisory Committee of Life Insurance Companies of New York and has served on the Board of Literacy Inc.  She co-chaired the Connections/Development Committee for CALIBR (formerly NextGen Network) and hosted CEO Roundtable discussions.  She has spoken on “Black Women in Finance” as a panelist for the 32nd Annual Whitney M. Young Jr. Memorial Conference held at the University of Pennsylvania.  Karen has been featured in publications including the NextGen Member Spotlight and the Wall Street Journal.  

Karen currently resides in Charlotte, NC with her family.