BIOGRAPHY

Alan Sugar's aide on The Apprentice is also known as the 'first lady of football.' She became MD of Birmingham City at the age of 23, and is now Vice Chairman of West Ham and one of the UK's best known business personalities. Karren Brady is tough, ambitious, focused and has a wicked sense of humour... just don't ask her which team she supports.*

Karren started her career in sales at LBC Radio. Having successfully sold advertising to David Sullivan, the owner of Sport Newspapers, she accepted a job offer from him and soon became a director of his company. When Birmingham City fell into receivership and came up for sale, she famously persuaded Sullivan to buy it and appoint her as Managing Director.

In her first year at the helm, the club recorded a trading profit. By the time it was launched on the stock market, it was valued at £25m. The average gate then increased to a sell-out of over thirty thousand, and the business was valued at £60m.

In presentations Karren talks about running the business side of a major football club - through promotion, relegation, media controversy and even brain surgery. Known for her resilience, she describes how to combat fear of failure and energise the team, and why hunger is always your most valuable asset.

Karren has added The Mothercare Foundation, Channel 4 and Sport England to her portfolio of directorships. She has also written two novels and two business books and is a regular columnist in The Sun, The Guardian and Birmingham Evening Mail.

*Arsenal

Print print icon