My journey into AI-driven transformation.
I’m Karuna Gingell-Beckmann (Linkedin), a Digital Transformation and Operations Strategist with over 20 years of experience in operations, project delivery, business systems, and digital growth.
I started my career in sales, but my curiosity for how things work pulled me behind the scenes. I studied Web Technologies and Database Management through BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) and launched a WordPress Development and Support business and subsequently a Digital Marketing Agency. That hands-on business experience led me into tech, where I became a Sales and Marketing Manager/Director of several multi-million startups and I discovered my zone of genius: streamlining systems with AI from the perspective of RevOps and Systems to drive growth (see some of my work)
I was born into the Canadian foster system, a legacy of a maternal lineage scarred by residential schools. By 19, I had survived abandonment, failed adoption, homelessness, teen pregnancy, and challenges most don’t come back from. I should have been a statistic. Instead, I became a fighter.
I spent time living off-grid in the forests of British Columbia and later in the high-desert hills of California with my young daughter, where I met my spiritual teacher and began a journey that transformed my outlook. Those years gave me the faith, discipline and strength to start again.
A turning point came after a retreat in San Diego, when a successful entrepreneur advised me to master web development and business skills if I wanted to secure my future and go from cleaning houses to being able to provide for my young daughter as a single mother. I acted immediately, teaching myself and building the foundation that allowed me to break into the corporate world without a diploma.
Years later, after moving to the UK, I was introduced to the elite corporate world through a 2 year relationship that had me living a jet-setting life and learning about how the 1% percent live. When that ended, I rebuilt again, this time faster and stronger. Within a year, I launched a profitable business from scratch with no money while earning a BBA and beginning advanced studies in AI through Oxford University, all while working full-time in tech.
Today I specialise in digital transformation and operations strategy, helping leaders harness AI, scale resilient systems, and beat the odds in business just as I have in life.
From orphan to operator. From dropout to Oxford. From being left behind to building my own type of empire. My story is proof that no odds are unbeatable.