Dr Karen Jones • Founder of Align Change Thrive

I know these systems from the inside.

I spent nearly three decades in STEM—first as a PhD molecular geneticist, then as a commercial and people leader inside complex global organisations.

I know what it takes to deliver at a high level. I also know what it is to become so capable, dependable and accustomed to carrying responsibility that your own voice, energy and ambitions begin to disappear beneath the work.

Today, I bring that lived experience together with leadership and behavioural coaching to help women in corporate STEM build greater visibility, influence and fulfilment, without sacrificing their wellbeing or themselves.

Three decades in STEM | 13 years in corporate leadership | More than 300 women supported | 94% employee wellbeing engagement

My corporate story

The experience behind the work

I was the safe pair of hands, too.

My career began in science, with a PhD in molecular genetics and postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School. I then moved into commercial STEM, working across biotechnology, life sciences, pharmaceutical research and clinical diagnostics.

Over the years, I led European and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) teams, delivered growth across businesses ranging from $200m to more than $1bn, navigated restructures and transformations, and learned how decisions really get made inside large global organisations.

I was ambitious, capable and deeply committed. I was also very good at becoming indispensable.

I solved problems, absorbed pressure and made sure the work got done. The higher I progressed, the more responsibility I carried—and the easier it became to confuse being constantly needed with having real authority.

From the outside, it looked like success. But I increasingly understood the cost of building a career through effort, over-responsibility and self-abandonment.

"Being relied upon for everything is not the same as being recognised for your leadership."

What leadership taught me

People and performance belong together

My experience inside STEM taught me that wellbeing and performance are not competing priorities. When people feel trusted, clear and able to contribute fully, teams become stronger—and so do business results.

While leading demanding commercial transformations, I built teams with employee wellbeing engagement reaching 94%. I did not achieve that by lowering expectations. I achieved it by creating clarity, trust, accountability and a culture in which people did not have to deplete themselves to do excellent work.

Alongside my Marketing Director role, I designed and led an internal coaching programme. I saw highly capable women change how they used their voice, set boundaries, recovered their energy and approached progression with a clear sense of their own authority.

Around 40% went on to achieve step-level promotions.

That experience confirmed something I had already begun to see: women in STEM do not lack ability. Too often, they are trying to progress inside systems that depend on their delivery while overlooking their authority.

  • President's Club and Inclusive Leader Awards

  • 94% wellbeing engagement scores year on year

  • 300+ women supported across 15 countries

  • 40% received step-level promotions after completion

  • 13 cohorts of 20+ women, coached over 12-weeks

When what matters becomes clear

Some questions can no longer be postponed.

For a long time, I knew that the way I was working was no longer fully aligned with the woman and leader I was becoming. But, like many capable women, I could keep functioning. I could keep delivering. I could keep postponing the deeper questions.

Then my mother died suddenly and tragically in a fire that destroyed my family home.

Grief has a way of stripping life back to what is true. Her death brought a painful clarity about time, meaning and the work I felt called to do. It made it impossible to ignore the distance between a successful life on paper and a life that genuinely reflects your values.

I stepped away from corporate leadership not because ambition had stopped mattering, but because I wanted to use it differently. I wanted to build work that brought together everything I knew about science, leadership, commercial reality and human behaviour—and use it to help other women stop abandoning themselves in order to succeed.

I did not leave ambition behind. I chose to bring it back into alignment with what matters.

Why Align Change Thrive exists

A bigger purpose

Align Change Thrive exists because women should not have to choose between meaningful impact and a life in which they are fully present.

Women in STEM do not need another generic leadership course or another self-paced module squeezed into time they do not have. They need honest insight into the personal and organisational patterns shaping their experience, practical strategies for the systems they are navigating, and space to practise a different way of leading.

My wider mission is to help reshape leadership in STEM: developing women who lead with clarity, confidence, humanity and sustainable authority—and helping organisations benefit from the stronger cultures, better decisions and fuller range of leadership perspectives this creates.

This is the purpose of Aligned Authority.

Aligned Authority is leadership that is clear, grounded, influential and sustainable, where performance and humanity are integrated rather than placed in conflict.

Insight matters. Practice creates change.

Warm, direct and grounded in reality

I combine four perspectives that are rarely brought together in leadership coaching:

Corporate STEM experience

I understand matrix organisations, restructures, commercial pressure, organisational politics and the particular dynamics women encounter in technical environments.

Behavioural depth

We work beneath surface-level confidence advice to understand the beliefs, habits and identity patterns that shape how you lead, respond and make decisions.

Practical leadership & commercial STEM strategy

The work translates into real meetings, stakeholder relationships, boundaries, career decisions and conversations—not theory that disappears when Monday morning arrives.

Humanity and psychological safety

You can be honest here. I bring warmth, empathy and deep respect, alongside the direct challenge needed to create meaningful change.

You will be supported and taken seriously.

Coaching with warmth and edge

I will help you see clearly.

We will name what is actually happening: the patterns that belong to you, the dynamics that belong to the organisation and the difference between the two.

I will challenge you without hardening you.

I will not push you to perform confidence, armour up or imitate someone else’s version of leadership. I will help you become more deliberate, courageous and authoritative as yourself.

I will connect insight to action.

Understanding is valuable, but change becomes real through the boundaries you hold, the conversations you have, the decisions you make and the leadership you practise.

I will honour the whole of your life.

Your career matters. So do your health, relationships, family, joy and sense of self. We do not treat those as obstacles to ambition; they are part of the life your ambition should support.

Leadership should leave room for life

I am a scientist who still loves making sense of complexity, a strategist who enjoys turning ideas into something useful, and a lifelong student of what helps people grow.

I am also a partner, mother of two daughters, dog owner, yoga devotee, padel player and firm believer in the restorative power of a long walk, good conversation and not taking ourselves too seriously.

Joy, connection, love and freedom are not decorative values in my life or business. They are part of how I define success and part of what I want more women to reclaim alongside their authority and impact.

"Karen is a powerful and insightful coach that I could, at the same time, relate to. I really appreciate her authenticity and her personality, all while conveying the theory and methods."

- Carla Flosky, Mechanical Design Engineer.

Karen practices what she preaches with empathy and to see this from someone in a leadership position is refreshing.
- Katelyn Gilmour PhD, Clinical Scientist

Karen herself is nothing short of an inspiration for women doing their best to thrive in the corporate world.

-Marisa Mason, Marketing Strategist

What is shaping how you lead and how you are seen?

The Aligned Authority Scorecard will help you identify the pattern influencing your visibility, capacity and progression—and the shift that will make the greatest difference now.

Free • 10 questions • Immediate result

Already know you want support? Book a call with Karen.

The Aligned Leader Love Letter

Thoughtful, practical perspectives on authority, visibility, career fulfilment and sustainable leadership for women in STEM.