Karren Brady

Karren Brady began her career at LBC when she was 18 years old and moved swiftly onto Saatchi & Saatchi as an Account Handler. She joined Sport Newspapers in 1988 and became a 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 when it was in liquidation, 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 stockmarket valued at the time of float at £25,000,000 and she was the youngest Managing Director of a PLC in the UK. During the past 8 and half years Karren has increased the average gate of the Club from 6,000 to over 25,000. As a result Birmingham City FC is now the biggest club in the Nationwide League of 72 clubs.

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 BBC 1. She has also hosted her own TV show Brady Bunch, and presented both Loose Women and Live Talk on ITV, she has also presented Central Weekend Live. She is regularly featured in the news, on TV and radio. Karren has written three books; a factual account of her first season at Birmingham City and two novels; ‘Trophy Wives and ‘United’. Karren was the finalist of the 2000 Midlands BusinessWoman of the Year Award.

Karren has made many constructive changes at Birmingham City Football Club and her community projects; such as ‘Kids a Quid’ scheme, the Family Stand, the Community Classroom and other similar initiatives have been emulated and copied elsewhere. The Club now offers the most comprehensive range of services from Financial to Personal (mortgages, insurance, loans, credit cards, petrol cards, saving accounts, and training services).

In her capacity as Managing Director, Karren continued her work for the Club as well as fulfilling media requests. She is married to Sheffield United and Canadian Captain and International striker, Paul Peschisolido. They have two children, Sophia 5 and Paolo 3.