Karen Cancinos Molina

Athlete, Consultant, Educator/Teacher, Environmentalist, Explorer, Idea generator, Marketer, Project manager

Karen is an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience creating opportunities to address critical global challenges, including renewable energy, water sanitation, environmental conservation, and financial access to housing through microfinance. In the energy sector, she has developed projects that enhance grid balancing and energy efficiency, using solar, hydroelectric and significantly contributing to forest conservation through the use of biomass as a sustainable feedstock. In microfinance, she helped design comprehensive housing solutions for low-income families across Central America, adding value through tailored programs that address both financial and social needs. In the water sanitation space, she played a key role in building the marketing and sales department at Ecofiltro.com—a company that now sells carbon credits to Microsoft. Each of her projects has required securing international investment, collaborating with institutions such as IDB Lab, ADA Luxembourg Microfinance, the World Bank, and private equity funds worldwide. Karen currently leads the Bolar Foundation, which provides scholarships for women to pursue undergraduate degrees locally and abroad. She is committed to tackling the systemic challenges her community faces, driven by the vision of sparking transformations that can inspire change across developing nations. Armed with an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing with a minor in Advertising, Karen thrives on challenges—approaching each one with determination, creativity, and strategic vision. Having worked as a consultant across multiple sectors in Guatemala, she deeply understands the complexities of markets shaped by social, political, and economic instability. She believes that Guatemala’s greatest potential lies in its youth and future generations, and she champions the role of women in leadership—breaking paradigms and guiding the way toward a more equitable future.

I&D, Technology, Social Projects

To create a modern economic model that competes against corruption, to invest in social and economic projects that can develop a whole country.

Communication - both verbal and nonverbal, marketing, Projects Management, Renewable energies, Technology - Enterprise

I'm a TED Attendee, I co organize a local event, I'm a dreamer, and an achiever, like everybody at TED.

cooking!