Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States, April 2026 — Karen Grafje is set for an upcoming promotion to Chief Human Resources Officer at Fulton Financial Corporation. With over 25 years of human resources experience and deep expertise in total rewards, executive compensation, HR operations, and people strategy, she is well positioned to help shape the employee experience and strengthen the organization’s people agenda in this new leadership role.
Before this upcoming promotion, Karen Grafje has been serving as EVP – Director of Total Rewards and HR Solutions at Fulton Bank, where she currently leads the Total Rewards function, including executive compensation strategy and plan design, benefits, compensation strategy and execution, and HR solutions. Her work in this role reflects a strong command of rewards strategy and HR leadership at a senior executive level.
Prior to joining Fulton Bank, she served at Sungard Availability Services as Senior Vice President Global Human Resources, where she led the global HR team across all areas of human resources and played a key role in acquisition and integration activity. Before that, she held the role of Vice President, Global Compensation and Benefits at the same company, managing global compensation, benefits, HRIS, HR operations, and payroll functions. These assignments added significant depth to her profile as a senior HR leader with global operational and strategic experience.
Earlier, Karen Grafje built a substantial career at VWR, part of Avantor, where she held multiple senior positions including Vice President, Total Rewards, Vice President, Human Resources and HR Services, and Vice President, HR Services. Across these roles, she managed global compensation, benefits, HRIS, payroll, employee engagement, talent acquisition, succession planning, workforce talent assessment, organizational development, performance management, and acquisition integration. She also led executive compensation programs, incentive design, Board compensation materials, and HR systems oversight, demonstrating broad leadership across both strategic and operational HR functions.
Alongside her corporate leadership experience, she also served as an Adjunct Professor at Saint Joseph’s University. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade at IKON Office Solutions, where she held roles including Senior Manager, Compensation, Director, Human Resources, and HR Manager. In these positions, she advised senior executives on workforce planning, organizational design, compensation, succession planning, performance management, leadership development, and HR systems implementation. She began her early professional journey in Recruiting/Benefits at Osprey Systems.
Her career journey reflects a strong progression across compensation, benefits, HR services, global human resources, succession planning, workforce strategy, executive compensation, and organizational leadership. With this breadth of experience, Karen Grafje brings a highly accomplished HR profile to her upcoming role as Chief Human Resources Officer at Fulton Financial Corporation.
About Fulton Financial Corporation
Fulton Financial Corporation is committed to “Banking Better, Together,” emphasizing dedicated, personal service and helping customers achieve their financial goals. Through its community-oriented approach to banking, the organization focuses on flexibility, responsiveness, and long-term relationship building. Fulton Bank, part of Fulton Financial Corporation, is a full-service commercial bank headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, operating more than 200 financial centers and specialty offices and offering lending, mortgage, investment management, trust services, business solutions, and digital banking capabilities across multiple states.
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