Katherine Otway

Katherine Otway is currently Chief Strategy Officer at The Engine, a deep tech incubator and accelerator built by MIT, and independently consults with startups on how to build, fund, and market their ventures. She also advises companies or serves as a fractional CXO in fintech, emerging tech, and life sciences companies. She was formerly Chief Marketing Officer of Zapata Quantum (a quantum computing software company) where her mandate included market-making for an emerging technology, fundraising, shaping the company’s offering, and designing its brand and business model. 

Prior to that, she was a Senior Director at IDEO, a global design and innovation consultancy, where for eight years she used Design Thinking to create new ventures for enterprises seeking transformational growth and helped startups go to market. She worked across industries for clients like Michaels, Liberty Mutual, Exelon, and PillPack (acquired by Amazon). Her IDEO work included a venture design curriculum, which has informed her executive MBA lecturing as a Faculty Associate at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and delivery of Executive Education modules at Babson College. 

Katherine brings experience in strategy and marketing and her entrepreneurial mindset to every challenge. She thrives when designing new value propositions, brands, business models, and products, digital or physical. Katherine holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson and an undergraduate degree from Georgetown.