Karen Richard Elected to MPR Board of Trustees

Feb 9, 2022

ST. PAUL, Minn. Feb. 9, 2022 – Minnesota Public Radio has elected Karen Richard as the newest member of its Board of Trustees. Richard is the Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Andersen Corporation.

“I am excited to welcome Karen Richard to the MPR board,” said Jean Taylor, President and CEO of American Public Media Group, the parent company of Minnesota Public Radio. "Karen has shown strong leadership in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the workplace and as well as the community. She has a passion for public service, and we are fortunate to have her expertise and thought leadership at the table.”

Richard was recently recognized as one of the top 100 HR professionals at the January 2022 OnCon Icon Awards. She was named a Minneapolis/St Paul Business Journals’ (MSPBJ) Women in Business Honoree for her work in the community and diversity and inclusion work at Andersen in 2019. That same year, she became a member of the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable (MWER).

“MPR’s commitment to expanding its reach to underserved and rural communities in Minnesota is vital to meet audiences’ needs,” said Richard. “Our public mission is to serve all audiences, and MPR plays an essential role in making these connections and presenting listeners with diverse perspectives, values and beliefs. I am grateful to play a role in building an equitable media organization and I plan on bringing my thoughts and values about what it means to serve all communities to MPR.”

In her current role at Andersen Corporation, Richard is responsible for human resources; diversity, equity and inclusion; community relations and corporation communications; talent acquisition and development; and enterprise security. She is also a member of Andersen’s executive committee and serves as the president of the board of directors for the Andersen Corporate Foundation.

An active member of the Twin Cities community, Richard is on the MSPBJ Women’s Leadership Council. In addition to her service on the MPR Board of Trustees, Richard also serves on the executive committee and is chair of the finance committee for Genesys Works Twin Cities. Prior to this, she was a member of the Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW) board of directors and led its executive compensation task force. In 2016, Richard was one of ten leaders selected to represent the Minneapolis-St. Paul region as a member of the Young American Leaders Program (YALP) at Harvard Business School. She also co-chaired the Itasca CHRO Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Collaborative. Richard is a current member of the Itasca Housing Task Force, Green Light Fund selection advisory committee and Way to Grow’s Capacity Building Campaign Task Force.

A certified public accountant, Richard holds a Master's in Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas and a Bachelors in Accounting from the College of St. Benedict. She resides in Lake Elmo with her husband, Bill, and has two adult sons, Patrick and Tucker.

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About Minnesota Public Radio
Minnesota Public Radio® (MPR®) operates a 46-station radio network serving almost all of Minnesota and parts of surrounding states for more than 50 years. A division of American Public Media Group, MPR reaches nearly 1 million weekly listeners. MPR and its three regional services—MPR News, YourClassical MPR and The Current®—produce programming for radio, digital and live audiences. Programs produced by MPR’s national programming division, American Public Media® (APM), reach over 17 million listeners with nearly 1,000 public radio stations and over 400 commercial stations nationwide each week. APM is one of the largest producers and distributors of public radio programming in the world. APM Studios, a division of APM, produces award-winning podcasts spanning the best in investigative journalism, food, business and entertainment. For more information on MPR, visit minnesotapublicradio.org.