Karen Hayward

Picture of Karen Hayward
Karen Hayward is a Managing Partner and CMO of Chief Outsiders. Karen is a results-oriented marketing, sales and operations executive with a proven track record for building and executing strategic programs that accelerate revenue. Karen’s industry marketing awards include a DemandGen Top 10 Award for "Using Sales and Marketing Automation to Fuel Corporate Growth" (2008 - CenterBeam) and a Stevie Finalist recognition for "Best Marketing Department" from the American Business Awards. In 2004, Karen was named a “Selling All-Star” by Selling (a monthly publication of Institutional Investor. She has also been a featured speaker at Interop 2007, On24 Webcast on Lead Farming, and a guest lecturer at USC East Bay. In 2010, Karen was recognized by CRN as one of the "Power 100: The Most Powerful Women of the Channel" for driving top-line revenue growth and revving up CenterBeam's social media program. Karen holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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Recent Posts

When PE Firms Miss the Signals — And Pay for It at Exit

When PE Firms Miss the Signals — And Pay for It at Exit

Nov 9, 2026, 8:57:22 PM | Posted by Lowell Price

Executive Takeaways

  • A single commercial hire can’t substitute for a commercial system -- and sponsors who treat it that way usually find out at exit.
  • The six signals that precede a revenue plateau are recognizable early; most go unaddressed because they’re read as talent problems instead of system problems.
  • Fractional commercial leadership is a build model, not a consulting engagement -- the goal is a system the team can run after the operator leaves.
  • The highest-value deployments happen proactively, not reactively -- at diligence, in the first 100 days, or before a plateau becomes a trend.

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