Karren Brady

Karren Brady began her career at LBC when she was 18 years old and swiftly moved onto Saatchi & Saatchi as junior Account Handler.  She joined Sports Newspapers Ltd in 1988 and became director within a year.

Karren is now known as the first woman in football.  She has been Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club since 1993 and has turned the Club's fortunes around. 

She took over Birmingham City when it was in administration, and in her first year at the helm, the Club recorded a financial trading profit.  In 1996 the Club made an overall profit for the first time in modern history and in February 1997 the Club launched on the Stock market valued at the time of float at £25,000,000; she was the youngest Managing Director of a PLC in the UK. 

During the past years Karren has increased the average gate of the Club from 6,000 to a sell out capacity of over 30,000.  In 2007 her business was valued at over £60million.

Karren has attracted much media attention in her position, and was the subject of an hour long documentary ‘Inside Story' - The Real Life Manageress' shown on BBC 1.  She has hosted her own TV show, Brady Bunch, and has also presented both Loose Women and Live Talk on ITV and she has also presented Central Weekend Live.  She is regularly featured in the news, on TV and radio.   

Karren has written four books; a factual account of her first season at Birmingham City, ‘Brady plays the Blues' two novels, ‘United' and ‘Trophy Wives' and her latest book ‘Playing to Win' is about successful women in business. 

Karren is a columnist for The Sun newspaper; the UK's biggest selling national daily newspaper, 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 is on the business Board of Scope, and the Ambassador for Birmingham Women's Aid.  She is Chairman of Kerrang! (EMAP), and a Board Director of Mothercare PLC, Channel 4 Television and Sport England.  She is an honoree Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing.  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.

In March 2006 she was chosen as the team leader on BBC1's The Apprentice, for Comic Relief, where she lead her team (Trinny Woodall, Jo Brand, Cheryl Cole and Maureen Lipman) to a resounding victory over the boys team (Alistair Campbell, Piers Morgan, Rupert Everett, Danny Baker and Ross Kemp) raising over £750k (the two teams together raising £1million for charity)

In December 2007 Karren was a guest on Desert Island Discs and February 2007 will see the launch of Karren Brady's ‘Today's Business Woman' magazine.

In October 2007 Karren was voted Business Woman of the Year.

Karen has worked with the following organisations;

Capita education resouring conference
Shropshire ladies lunch
BCSC management conference
Hereford and Worcestershire business
link wrexham international science festival
East Lancs chamber of commerce
annual president dinner
Cognos Europe business forum
CIPD national conference
Servier conference
Tufnels parcels conference
Dublin chamber of commerce
Royal bank of Scotland
Fujitus services
International business systems
East midlands development agency
Ceredigion enterprise day
Orange telecom
Coventry and Warwickshire chamber of
commerce
Derbyshire businesswomen's networking event
Complement
IOD women's leaders summit
Association of colleges
Leeds media conference
Ceridian centre file
First Choice Holidays
Scottish Business Awards
HBOS senior managers
Women in Leadership
Royal Borough of Kingston
KPMG
Hudson
Scottish Wholesale Association
London Business Forum
Business Start-up
Chief Nurses Leadership Conference
Leaders in London Summit
Kent County Council
T-Mobile
Royal Bank of Scotland
Peterborough County Council
Barclay's international meeting of leaders
Tyco International
BBC
Leaders in London Conference
Institute of Payroll Professionals
CB Richard Ellis
S Helens Chamber
Tribal Group PLC

Stationary business trade show
Women business link
DTI civil servant ladies event
Qinetiq
TSB Bank
Merrill Lynch Event
SOCPO event
Bourne Leisure event
Newcastle chronicle business awards
Enterprise Northeast
Driving standards agency
Citigroup leadership event
Shell women's network
Halliwells Annual Corporate Recovery Conference
Irelands Forecourt Convenience Retail Conference
Ernst and Young
IBEC Annual Conference
Deloitte Conference
Work and Pensions Leadership Conference
Xchanging Annual Insurance Market Conference
KPMG -
British Metal Forming Association
The Home Group
The National Association of Pension Funds
Wolverhampton University
The Association of Convenience Stores
Mellon Bank of New York
Sector Skills Council
NHS Chief Executive Leadership Conference
National Student Forum
Nottinghamshire Health Care
Royal Mail
Mail on Sunday
Jobsite
Yell
I.O.D. Hull
Sandwell College
Carshalton College
Marketing in Partnership
IRM Risk Forum
Royal Mail
Institute of Directors Northeast Region
Power to Lead Conference
Print London
EEDA
Johnson & Johnson
Scottish Enterprise
Cambridge University
British Telecom

Don't forget if you are thinking of booking a Speaker for your event we can also help with Awards Presenters, Comedians,after dinner Cabaret, fabulous Party Bands or Tributes, DJs, Close up Magicians, amazing Lookalikes for Meet and Greet, Circus Acts and many different types of Themed Entertainment plus much, much more.