Karen Blouin-Clay

Karen Blouin-Clay is the Senior Vice President of Communications for Lendmark Financial Services, an Atlanta-based Lightyear Capital portfolio company. She is a transformational leader with deep B2B and B2C expertise in communications, public relations, marketing, branding, and culture transformation in the financial services, franchise, QSR and automotive industries. Karen’s ability to combine analytics with strategy and consult on topics with both breadth and depth makes her unique as a trusted advisor.

She joined Lendmark in 2019 to launch the communications function, and reimagine PR, and is currently leading communications, PR strategy and corporate philanthropy, helping to further the company’s brand positioning and de novo expansion.

Prior to joining Lendmark, she led internal communications for Cox Automotive’s Retail Division and before that, the iconic Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen during the latter phase of its 10-year turnaround. Earlier in her career she held senior leadership roles at social enterprise start-up Benevolink and then Ryla, a domestic outsourced BPO where she was responsible for leading the marketing and PR strategy that helped propel ten-fold growth in four years.

Blouin-Clay earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Drake University. A wife, mother of three and passionate cook, she is a native of Los Angeles, CA but has called Atlanta, GA home for more than 20 years. Inspired by her New Orleans family roots and as keeper of her family’s treasured heritage recipes, cooking and supporting Black-owned restaurants and food purveyors has been a lifelong passion. She has lent her writing, marketing, and PR expertise pro bono to local minority-owned restauranteurs since the late ‘80’s, beginning with Janet’s Jerk Chicken in Los Angeles to Savannah’s Back in the Day Bakery and others presently.