KAREN MARIE BACOLOD · PRESS & SPEAKING
Talks and workshops on leadership, storytelling, and human-first AI, with questions and practices audiences can take into their own work and lives.
Speaking inquiries for 2027
FOR EVENT ORGANIZERS
Whether your audience is navigating organizational change, exploring AI, or entering a new chapter, Karen brings leadership experience and guided reflection to the conversation.
Leadership lessons grounded in experience
Questions that invite audience participation
Practical reflection to continue after the session
Karen Marie Bacolod is a speaker, entrepreneur, and cofounder of Æthos™. During a decade at Tesla, she held nine leadership roles, led operations across 16 locations, and helped turn around more than 13 underperforming teams.
Her talks explore the human side of change: the assumptions we carry, the questions we ask, and the choices we make when familiar approaches stop working.
Drawing on leadership experience, storytelling, and her work building human-first AI experiences, Karen invites audiences to explore a different perspective and identify a meaningful next step.
For leaders and teams navigating change.
Explore how the questions leaders ask can help teams examine assumptions, participate in change, and identify a useful next step.
Recognize assumptions shaping a team’s response.
Ask questions that invite different perspectives.
Identify a practical next step when the path is unclear.
For organizations, entrepreneurs, and creative teams exploring AI.
Consider how to use AI while continuing to practice reflection, creativity, and independent judgment.
Identify where your own judgment matters.
Examine when to seek suggestions and when to think first.
Connect technology choices to meaningful goals.
For people and teams navigating professional or creative transitions.
Use narrative and guided reflection to explore the stories shaping your choices and the possibilities ahead.
Notice patterns in the way you describe your situation.
Ask questions that clarify what matters now.
Choose a small experiment to explore a new direction.
Short biography
Karen Marie Bacolod is a speaker, entrepreneur, and cofounder of Æthos™. During a decade at Tesla, she held nine leadership roles and led operations across 16 locations. Her work connects leadership experience, storytelling, and human-first AI to the ways people navigate change and choose what comes next.
Stage introduction
“Please welcome Karen Marie Bacolod, speaker, entrepreneur, and cofounder of Æthos™. Drawing on a decade at Tesla and her work building human-first AI experiences, Karen explores how better questions can help us navigate change and find a way forward.”
Planning a 2027 event, podcast, or interview? Email your audience, topic, and timing so we can explore the fit.
For speaking invitations, email founders@byaethos.com with your audience, topic, and timing. The test-group signup below is for a.Journey participation.
Perspectives from colleagues, managers, and people Karen has led and worked alongside.
WELCOME, STORY 2026
Explore the ideas behind Heart-Based Questions that Unlock Your Story Within. This space connects STORY attendees with a.Journey™, our guided reflection experience.
STORY 2026 · October 1-2, 2026 · Nashville, TN · Event details