Karen Downs

Karen Downs spent more than 20 years transforming enterprise intranets from the inside before becoming Head of Strategic Communications Practice, Global Markets, at Staffbase. At Sprint, H&R Block, and NYU Langone Health, she rebuilt the systems and decisions that determine whether an intranet serves employees or buries them—one consensus at a time. That diligence produced a $3M intranet consolidation at Sprint recognized by Nielsen Norman Group as a top-10 global site, and an intranet at H&R Block ranked #4 of 256 organizations worldwide.

She's the author of Digital Endurance (September 2026), written for intranet practitioners and anyone with a stake in the broader digital workplace. From the trenches, Karen saw the same pattern everywhere: Intranets fail when organizations chase better tools, settle for surface-level alignment, or leave governance gaps unresolved. Intranets thrive when people doing the work can navigate complexity and drive change without the formal authority to demand it. Digital Endurance shows you exactly what you need to make that happen.

Today, Karen brings that seasoned know-how to Staffbase and its enterprise customers. She helps communications and IT teams apply the leadership practices that took her decades to master—so they don't have to learn the hard way.
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