Former chief executive of online job marketplace CareerOne Karen Lawson has taken on a new role leading startup accelerator Slingshot.

After more than a decade of experience working in executive roles within Australia's technology sector, she is set to spearhead growth and innovation for corporates.

She has been head of innovation for Slingshot's corporate Scaleup programme for the last five months.

CareerOne has transitioned from a News Corp-owned jobs board to a new close relationship with rival Seek. Private education company Acquire Learning bought a controlling interest in June 2015. Lawson played a key role in its reinvention as a broader technology business with start up partnerships. She had been Yahoo!7's general manager of business development and partnerships, leading several experimental new media and technology endeavours.

"Over my career, I've learned the importance of reinvention and innovation and how it can make or break a legacy business," Lawson says. "Slingshot plays a unique role in helping corporates innovate. Driving transformation is extremely challenging. It starts with us building the innovation capital within a business. Startup's bring ideas, corporates bring scale."

Lawson, who lists UN Women's Entrepreneurship Ambassador among accolades, says there is a "seismic shift" underway where individuals have never had more power: "How corporates harness this innovation capital is key to their strategy and the challenge lies in acting now."

Slingshot's program connects emerging startups, scaleups and corporates to world-class leaders and entrepreneurs to accelerate commercial outcomes, and has helped more than 50 startups achieve a combined market capitalisation of more than $60m and the creation of 98 full time jobs.