Karen Puckett

Board Member

Karen Puckett is an experienced CEO, COO, Board Director, and Private Equity Advisor recognized for strategic transformations, extensive M&A experience, and digital strategy expertise.

Karen Puckett has been a Director of Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) since 2015. She serves as Chair of the Personnel Committee, a member of the Audit Committee. Chair of Lumos Fiber; Serves on the boards of Ensono, Osmose (Chair of Audit) and Cypress Creek (Chair of Audit). Karen served on the Board of Harte Hanks (NYSE: HHS) from 2009-2018. Karen was asked to assume the role of CEO, September 2015-August 2018.

In a career that spans more than 35 years, Karen has extensive C level experience in global companies leading strategic transformations, broad M&A experience, and digital strategy. As CEO of Harte Hanks, Karen developed the strategic direction to capture the digital marketing services growth in the consumer and enterprise segments, deleveraged the balance sheet, divested non-strategic assets, invested in new digital capabilities, expanded global customers, and improved client satisfaction. Karen served as CenturyLink’s COO for 15 years in the telecom, cloud and managed services industries in both consumer and business segments. During her tenure, she was responsible for leading the company’s transformation from a local telephone business to an industry leader in global advanced communications services, driving revenue growth from $1.5 billion to more than $18 billion. Ms. Puckett was instrumental in executing the company’s growth strategies in the arenas of cloud, data hosting, managed services, and global expansion while developing digital capabilities to improve customer satisfaction and operational excellence.

She was named Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology in 2014 & 2015, Louisiana Center for Women in Government and Business’ Hall of Fame in 2015, and Lewis and Clark Pioneer in Industry, University of Montana in 2008.

Ms. Puckett earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana State University and a master’s degree in business administration from Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky Harvard Business School Executive Education: Compensation Committee: New Challenges MIT Sloan of Management: Digital Business Strategy.