Karen Ross

Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer Sharp Decisions

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Karen Ross is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sharp Decisions, a New York firm that supplies technology talent, consulting and training to corporations and government agencies. The company says it has served Fortune 1000 clients for more than three decades, and she has led it throughout. Its best-known initiative is the V.E.T.S. programme, which since 2013 has trained more than 1,000 military veterans for enterprise technology roles. Her company biography says her current focus includes distributed ledger and Web3 technology.

Career Highlights

• Founded Sharp Decisions and has led it for more than three decades as President and CEO.
• Built a client base across Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, media and telecommunications.
• Oversees the V.E.T.S. programme, which has trained more than 1,000 veterans for enterprise technology work since 2013.
• Sharp Decisions has received recognition from Crain’s New York Business and Inc. Magazine under her leadership.
• Holds a Bachelor of Science from Union College.

Professional Journey

Ross founded Sharp Decisions and has run it for its whole history of more than thirty years. The firm is based at 1040 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan and works where technology staffing, consulting and training meet. It places technical talent with clients, advises on projects and trains people for enterprise technology roles in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, cloud computing and advanced analytics. Over those decades, her biography says, she has worked across clients in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, media and telecommunications while the underlying technology changed several times.

The firm’s most distinctive programme is V.E.T.S. Launched in 2013, it gives military veterans customised training to move their skills into enterprise technology work, and then places them with clients. The company says it has trained more than 1,000 veterans so far. The programme addresses two problems at once: clients’ shortage of technology staff and veterans’ difficulty moving into civilian careers.

Her biography describes her as focused on developing and integrating distributed ledger and Web3 technologies for clients. Sharp Decisions has received recognition from Crain’s New York Business and Inc. Magazine under her leadership. The company’s executive team includes Stuart Gottlieb as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer and Susy J. Vaca as Chief People Officer.

Education

Union College

Bachelor of Science