Karen Ann Shaw Petrou ( Dolmatch; March 6, 1953 â February 21, 2026) was an American financial analyst and co-founder of Federal Financial Analytics, where she provided analytic and advisory services on legislation, public policy, and regulatory issues that affect financial services in the United States and foreign countries.
Karen Ann Dolmatch was born in New York City in 1953 and grew up in Briarcliff Manor, New York. At age 18, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa â losing her reading vision in her mid-30s, and requiring a guide dog at age 50. On February 21, 2026, she died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 72, from cancer.
Petrou received an undergraduate degree in political science from Wellesley College, studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and earned an MA in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was also a doctoral candidate.
In 1977, Petrou began her career at Bank of America in San Francisco. By age 27, she had become vice president at Bank of America in Washington, D.C. In 1985, she co-founded her own company â Federal Financial Analytics â with her husband, Basil Petrou, to provide "analytical and advisory services on legislative, regulatory, and public-policy issues affecting financial services companies".