Tanni Grey-Thompson
Record-breaking Paralympian
Karren Brady
Baroness Karren Brady CBE
Former Vice Chair, West Ham & Small Business Ambassador
Karren ran the business side of Birmingham City FC through promotion, relegation - and brain surgery. Karren's mantra for leaders growing any enterprise can be summed up in 5 tips: work hard (be persistent); use every opportunity to network (spread your message); move on (failure is history); don't get side-tracked, and do your sums.
Speaking Topics
- Resilience
- Strategy
- Transformation & Change
Biography
Karren Brady, businesswoman, peer, ‘first lady of football’, and Alan Sugar’s aide on The Apprentice, became MD of Birmingham City at the age of just twenty-three, and is now one of the UK’s best known business personalities.
After starting out in advertising, Karren’s first contact with David Sullivan, then owner of Sport Newspapers, was through selling him airtime on LBC. So impressed was the businessman that he employed Karren and she was quickly appointed a director. Upon hearing that Birmingham City had gone into receivership and was for sale for £1, she famously persuaded David that she could run the club. He bought it and installed Karren as Managing Director.
Within twelve months Karren had turned the club around, recording a profit. In four years, she became the youngest MD of a PLC when the business was floated with a value of £25million. She steered the club to huge successes. When she left the club when it was sold for £81million.
When David Sullivan and his business partner David Gold bought West Ham United, Karren was appointed Vice-Chairman. Following her first twelve months there, the club made a trading profit for the first time in its recent history. Karren has since grown all revenue streams at the club exponentially. Under her leadership, West Ham has seen an overall income growth of 300%, now valued at £1billion - propelling it to the 14th most Valuable club in the world, and 7th most valuable in the Premier League. She secured a move for the club to the former Olympic Stadium in London.
Karren was awarded a CBE for her contribution to women in business and entrepreneurship; and became a Peer in House of Lords taking the title Baroness Brady of Knightsbridge CBE. In her characteristically no-nonsense but entertaining way, Karren speaks about running the business side of a major football club - through promotion, relegation, controversy and even brain surgery. Known for her resilience and focus, she describes how to combat fear of failure and energise the team, and why hunger is always your most valuable asset regardless of your organisation or industry.
Karren has been awarded Cosmopolitan’s Woman of the Year and named in the category of Woman Who Has Changed the World. She has also been awarded CEO of the Year Award at the Football Business Awards, and BBC Women’s Hour called her one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom. She has written autobiographies, business books and novels, and has written for a range of national newspapers.
“One of the best speakers we've seen.”
Very inspirational and funny at the same time. She shared her tips for getting to the top and how to succeed which is exactly what we wanted for our audience.
A captivating speaker and one I highly recommend. I’d been looking forward to seeing her in person for many years and she more than lived up to my sky-high expectations. She had so much to share that was directly relevant to our business audience and from a personal perspective, having recently taken over the role of CEO, her messages on leadership – covering everything from the team bus to the boardroom – couldn’t have been more inspiring. Thank you.
Baroness Brady was excellent. She provided a really good mix of business and leadership advice, inspiration and humorous anecdotes. She was the highlight of the day.
Our aspirations for the event were exceeded way beyond what we had envisaged! There is no doubt Karren's involvement helped through creating the inspirational, provocative wow factor, and in turn she has inspired a number of our people and their partners into action. No mean feat at an evening event and with such a diverse group!
The feedback we have received from our guests has been fabulous and specific. So, we know Karren’s attendance really made a difference. Here's what we have heard so far: Karren had great stories and opinions, she was charming and down to earth with a great sense of humour, she provoked thought but was accessible for our diverse audience.
The interview approach was perfect for the style of event, through which the breadth of stories and messages were made very relevant and are being played back at work and at home.
As a dinner guest with the range of personalities and interests at the table she was absolutely charming, very humorous, she had lots of interesting views on a range of subjects whilst keeping the conversation uplifting and down to earth. It felt as though we were having dinner with a successful, powerful but humble friend and not at a celebrity guest at a corporate event!
Karren did very well. The theatre was absolutely packed out – the only time we were full beyond capacity. Overall we were delighted – and it brought a new dimension to the conference sessions. The audience enjoyed Karren's speech. The content was just a tiny bit ‘laddy’ at times. Her content on success, determination, staff motivation, business common sense, changing sloppy business practice was more suited to our professional audience.
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