Karren Brady

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Karren Brady - Conference and keynote speaker, business, motivational

Topics:

Business
Leadership
Motivation & Teamwork
Sport
Women

Karren Brady is known as the first woman of football - she was Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club between 1993 and 2009 and turned the Club’s fortunes around. Karren's experience and unique position in the world of football make her an ideal choice for a business or motivational speaker. In August 2009, it was announced that Karren would replace Margaret Mountford as Lord Sugar's new assistant in the sixth series of the Apprentice.

Conference Speaker

Karren’s experience and knowledge of leadership, motivation, team-building and change through her career have made her an ideal speaker for any organisation looking to improve their performance and bottom line. Karren’s experiences as a woman in a male dominated business has meant Karren has a unique focus on the lighter issues of life.

Before Birmingham City FC

Karren Brady began her career at LBC when she was 18 years old and moved swiftly onto Saatchi & Saatchi as Account Handler. She joined Sports Newspapers Limited in 1988 and became Director within a year. This meteoric rise provided her with the foundations to progress onto her next challenge.

At Birmingham City

In her first year at the helm, (1993) the club recorded a financial trading profit. In 1996 the club made its first overall profit for the first time in modern history and was in a position to launch on AIM in February 1997. During her last few years as MD, Karren increased the average gate of the Club from 6,000 to a sell out capacity of over 30,000. She was the highest placed woman in football in the UK and was the only woman in charge of a Premier League Football Club in the Country and the highest placed in Europe.

She made constructive changes at Birmingham City and her community projects such as the Kids a Quid Scheme, the Family Stand environment, the Community Classroom and other similar initiatives have been emulated and copied elsewhere.

The Apprentice

In March 2006 she was chosen as the team leader on BBC1’s The Apprentice, for Comic Relief, where she lead the girls team to a resounding victory over the boys team raising over £750k (the two teams together raising £1million) for Comic Relief.

Following her appearances as one of Lord Sugar's interrogator at the interview stage of the popular BBC series The Apprentice, Karren will replace Margaret Mountford as Lord Sugar's right hand woman in the forthcoming sixth series of the show.

TV & Radio Appearances

Karren has attracted much media attention as the highest placed woman in football and was the subject of an hour long documentary ‘Inside Story – The Real Life Manageress’ shown on BBC1. She also hosted her own TV show and is regularly featured in the papers and on TV and radio.

Karren is a columnist for The Sun, The Evening Mail in Birmingham, and The Guardian. She is a judge of the Cosmopolitan Women of Achievement Awards and the Sports Industry Awards. She was voted by Cosmopolitan as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world and in 2004 and again in 2006 attended The Queen’s lunch for Women Achievers and Business Leaders. She was acknowledged as one of the most influential women in Britain by the Daily Mail and voted as one of Britain’s Most Inspirational Women by Good Housekeeping magazine. In November 2006 she won the Cosmopolitan Woman of the Year, in the category of Women Who Have Changed the World.