AGA PDT 2026

Karen Hardy
Visiting Fellow, The IBM Center for Government



Dr. Karen Hardy is a governance, risk oversight and enterprise risk strategist with more than two decades of experience helping complex institutions anticipate, govern, and act on risk. She previously served as Deputy Chief Risk Officer at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she directed and advanced enterprise risk management across a multi-billion-dollar federal portfolio spanning intellectual property, census operations, trade, entrepreneurship, data, broadband technology, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies, including AI. Her work has been widely recognized for shaping how enterprise risk management is understood and applied in public-sector environments. According to the IBM Center for the Business of Government: “Dr. Hardy’s work has been credited with pioneering enterprise risk management literature across government, with research and publications that are widely recognized.” Dr. Hardy’s current work as an IBM Visiting Fellow focuses on the intersection of risk oversight, human decision-making, and institutional performance. She serves as faculty in the Chief Risk Officer executive program at George Mason University, where she engages directly with senior leaders and curates practitioner insights. She is the creator and architect of enterprise risk frameworks adopted by 39 organizations and an award-winning author of the book “Enterprise Risk Management: A Guide for Government Professionals” published by John Wiley & Sons. As a 2x Federal Bronze Medal recipient, she has a broader body of work that reflects a consistent throughline: translating complex governance and risk concepts into decision-ready practice that strengthens resilience, accountability, and trust.

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