KAREN ROHRKEMPER
Crown Castle Senior VP, Network Implementation & Operations
Karen Rohrkemper is the Senior Vice President of Network Implementation & Operations for Crown Castle. Her team is responsible for ongoing operations encompassing over 55k small cell nodes and 80K route miles of fiber with a $1B capital budget. Additionally, she and her team are responsible for project delivery, design, permitting, and build for all new small cell and fiber deployments in the United States driving continued year over year growth.
Karen has over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry, having worked 17 years at Cincinnati Bell before joining Crown Castle in 2018. Her wide-ranging experiences have included sales, product management, wireless services and data analytics. She led the comprehensive turn down of wireless for Cincinnati Bell in 2014 when the decision was made to sell the spectrum to Verizon. She began with Crown Castle as a Regional Vice President, leading planning, engineering and construction for the Central region before advancing to her current role in 2021.
Karen offers a unique combination of strategic and tactical thinking, along with creative vision and practical effectiveness. She is highly committed to building a culture of commitment through transparency, accountability, fully collaborative teams and leader excellence. She considers herself a positive energizer with a continuous improvement focus.
Karen and her husband Evan live in the Cincinnati metropolitan area with their 5-year-old son and twin girls who will turn 3 this year. They will be moving to Houston in 2023.