With expertise in strategy, growth, risk, governance, and turnaround work, Karen Teitelbaum is a nationally recognized leader in ensuring corporate progress and market development through operational excellence and transformation of care.
Current boards include Surgical Solutions, a portfolio company of Grupo Vitalmex, S.A., providing sterile processing solutions (Member, Commercial and Operating Committee), Ingenovis Health, a portfolio of forward-thinking staffing healthcare companies (Chair, Risk and Compliance Committee), Alliance Physical Therapy Partners, a national leading physical therapy services network (Member, Compensation and Compliance Committees), and Towne Park, a tech enabled, multi-service hospitality company, focused on delivering exceptional experiences.
In her past board work in women’s health, she served as the Executive Chair of the Board and past Chair, Compensation Committee and member, Quality Committee of a growth-oriented company transforming women’s health services.
As a Senior Advisor to Juniper Advisory, Karen provides counsel to firm clients contemplating nonprofit healthcare mergers or acquisitions.
An advocate for utilizing technology to improve healthcare delivery, Karen is a board member at MATTER, a global healthcare startup incubator and corporate innovation accelerator (Member, Nominating and Governance Committee). She previously served as a mentor with Creative Destruction Lab, a global organization delivering an objectives-based program for scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies.
An early career entrepreneur, after purchasing a rehabilitation services firm, Karen grew the company into the largest of its kind in Chicago before selling it to a publicly traded firm. Following the sale, Karen held increasingly responsible positions in health-related companies.
As the immediate past President/Chief Executive Officer of Sinai Chicago, a private safety net healthcare system with over $1 billion in revenues, Karen oversaw a successful turnaround of financial, philanthropic, and operational performance. She drove year-over-year improvement profitability, taking the organization from a loss of $42 million to a profit of $32.6 million, improved EBIDA from a negative $14.8 million to a positive $55.6 million and increased philanthropy six-fold to $13.5 million. Karen previously served as Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer.
Karen has been an active participant in legislative policy-making agendas, working with both Senate and Congress. She is a past Chair of the Illinois Health and Hospital Association Board (Past Chair, Finance Committee, Member, Executive, Governance, and Health Equity Committees). Karen also served as a board member of America’s Essential Hospitals (Member, Governance Committee). She is a Visiting Lecturer at Kenya Methodist University in Nairobi.
Awards include “One of 10 Business Leaders to Watch” by the Chicago Tribune, twice named to Crain’s Chicago Business “Notable Women in Chicago Healthcare” list, the Weizmann Institute “Women of Science” award, and a recipient of the National Medical Fellowship “Leadership in Healthcare” award. She is a member of The Chicago Network, Women Corporate Directors, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Economic Club of Chicago, and Kellogg Executive Women’s Network.
Karen holds an MBA from Northwestern University, J.L. Kellogg School of Management. She is a frequently requested national speaker, world traveler, avid bicyclist, and cook. She resides in Chicago, Illinois.