Karren Brady

At 55 years old, Karren Brady has this physical status:

Barren Rita Brady, Baroness Brady (born 4 April 1969) is a British sports executive, politician, television presenter, newspaper columnist, and novelist.

She is the former Birmingham City F.C.'s chief operating director. Vice Chairman and current West Ham United F.C. vice chairman.

She appears in the BBC One series The Apprentice as an aide to Alan Sugar.

She served as the Small Business Ambassador to the UK Government under Prime Minister David Cameron. She first joined Birmingham City in March 1993, when she was 23 years old.

When the team was promoted in 2002, she became the first woman to hold such a position in England's top flight.

She oversaw the company's IPO in 1997, becoming the country's youngest managing director.

She left the company in 2009 when her managers, David Sullivan and David Gold, sold the club for £81.5 million.

Following Sullivan and Gold's purchase of West Ham United in January 2010, she was named vice chairwoman of the club in January 2010.

Brady is a regular writer for Woman & Home magazine and The Sun.

She has written four books, two novels, and her most recent book, Strong Women, which was published in March 2012 and aimed at inspiring women in business, is a Sunday Times Bestseller.

Brady was named Baroness Brady in the House of Lords on September 22nd as a Conservative life peer. She was appointed by Sir Philip Green to chair Taveta, the Arcadia Group's founders, on July 17th.

Early life

Brady was born in Edmonton, London, and the family's house was located near the Tottenham Hotspur football ground. Terry Brady, her Irish father, had a fortune in printing and property development. Rita's mother, Rita, is Italian, and she has a younger brother, Darren. She attended Salcombe Preparatory School in Southgate until she was 11, followed by Poles Convent, a boarding school in Ware, Hertfordshire, and Aldenham School, Elstree, a girls' academy which accepted girls, where she obtained four A-levels.

Personal life

Brady married Canadian footballer Paul Peschisolido, who played for Birmingham City for two seasons (1992–93) and 1994–94. Sophia, a girl from 1996, was her first child. After the birth of her second child, a boy named Paolo, she had about six weeks off work. Brady and her partner live in London's Knightsbridge neighborhood. They also have a house in Knowle, West Midlands, and her husband has a house in Canada.

Brady underwent a full body MRI scan as part of a medical screening procedure in 2006, which unexpectedly revealed a potentially lethal cerebral aneurysm. Doctors told Brady that she had a 30 percent chance of dying from the disease and that it was a miracle that she had survived the births of her two children. She underwent emergency neurosurgery in February 2006 to prevent the aneurysm from rupturing. She made a complete recovery and was back to work about a month later. Despite assertions that Brady is a fan of Arsenal, she states on her official website that her footballing connections have only existed with the two clubs she has represented.

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Career

Brady's career began as a trainee at Saatchi & Saatchi, but he was refused a spot on a journalism course at Harlow College. Brady said in a 2018 interview that she made a conscious decision not to go to university because she wanted to get out in the world and make her mark. On her first year as an advertising account executive, she aimed at the advertising market of one of her father's most important clients, publisher David Sullivan, owner of the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport. Sullivan spent more than £2,000,000 on advertising in six months, and was so impressed with Brady that he gave her a job.

Sullivan gave her a job with Sport Newspapers and she became one of his editors at the age of 20. Brady noticed an advertisement in the Financial Times for the purchase of Birmingham City F.C. when he was working in Sullivan's employ. Sullivan was disowned by the club while retaining it and letting it run it. Brady replied quickly when Sullivan said that she'll have to be twice as good as a man to do that: "Well, that's not difficult." Later, Sullivan said he consented to the contract because such a young, female director would bring attention to the club, as well as because Brady was a "sacker." When Brady took over Birmingham City, F.C., as the managing director, she was 23 years old. In March 1993, the first time was published. She was confronted with misogyny in the role. "I can see your tits from here" for the first time she was on the team bus. "You will not be able to see them from there when I sell you to Crewe," Brady replied. The player was sold shortly after.

Sullivan and Brady were arrested by City of London Police in 2008 and released on bail as part of the probe into graft in English football, which also included allegations of misconduct against players and officials from other clubs; club chairman David Gold was interviewed as a witness. No charges had been lodged, and Brady denied any wrongdoing, according to the club. The probe involved tax and national insurance fraud involving two players. It was "completely wrong" that this highly skilled businesswoman had been made a victim of a football-hunt. In August 2009, it was announced that no further action would be taken. She left Birmingham City just two months after Sullivan and Gold sold the team to Carson Yeung for £81.5 million. She was appointed as a non-executive director to the England 2018 World Cup bid advisory board in the same month.

She was appointed Vice-Chairman of West Ham United in January 2010 by new Joint-Chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold. Brady wrote in her newspaper column, "To West Ham fans, I'll make a single promise, we'll hang in the Tower of London before your club again goes through the financial turmoil that has so nearly brought it down." Brady said she liked the prospect of transforming the club's name to West Ham Olympic. David Gold later said that under his chairmanship, the club would remain West Ham United, but "what you should do is call the stadium West Ham Olympic stadium." "I can make a case for that." Brady was in charge of arranging a transfer for West Ham United from their Boleyn Ground to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London. Initially, the intention was for West Ham to purchase the stadium, but this bid came to an end in October 2011 after a court delay caused by a rival bid by Tottenham Hotspur. Investigators on behalf of Tottenham were charged with fraud for illegally accessing Brady's personal telephone data. West Ham was named as the highest-ranked bidder to take over the Olympic Stadium's anchor concessionaire and tenant in December 2012. Brady said, "We are excited for our fantastic club and we want to set the example for visiting away and neutral supporters from around the world to attend the iconic Stadium and be a part of our Premier League team experience."

On March 23, 2013, West Ham United were named as anchor concessionaires for the Olympic Stadium. Brady testified before a House of Lords committee in July 2013, where she said the club owes £70 million that must be paid before the club's planned move to the Olympic Stadium in 2016. Brady oversaw the team's transfer from Boleyn Ground to the Olympic Stadium in the summer of 2016. West Ham United's capacity increased from 35,000 to 57,000 seats, the club's third highest home attendance in the Premier League, after being fully sold out before the start of the 2016–17 campaign. Following the change to the Olympic Stadium, some supporters who wanted to remain at Upton Park fired verbal abuse against Brady and other board members amid crowd protests during West Ham's home 2–4 loss to Watford on September 10, 2016. Brady sparked further outrage in October 2016 when describing West Ham's transfer to the London Stadium as "a chance to rebrand the club." Brady reiterated her remarks made at the Leaders Sport Business Summit, saying that West Ham's move to the new stadium was "part of our ambitious plan to bring our Club to the top of the world's most popular sport."

Brady has served as the chairman of Bauer's Kerrang! and has served on the board of Sport England. She served as a non-executive director of Channel 4 television but resigned to work at Syco, the corporation jointly owned by Simon Cowell and Sony. She joined Taveta Investments Ltd. as a non-executive role with Mothercare, where she had been working for seven years in September 2010. She is the ambassador for Barclays Life Skills, which aims to give young people the opportunity to work. She is also a Patron of the Life After Stroke Awards and an Ambassador for Well Being for Women.

Brady has long been known for promoting women in industry. She has consistently urged female colleagues to support those aspiring to work in the corporate world. In this Guardian column, she said, "Any board executive can forget how many people helped them get to where they are." Many women who have made it to the top must work to ensure that there is a pipeline of younger women, whether networking or mentoring, who in turn is encouraging others below them. Women in the boardroom must remember how many challenges and challenges we have encountered, and we should all have to disclose our coping tactics. "It's important to find talented women in industry and then assist them in gaining their confidence for the boardroom." "We need to look outside the corporate mainstream, at female entrepreneurs and self-employed businesswomen, who can bring different perspectives and perspectives to any board," Brady told the Independent, "If you don't have a woman on your board, you should write to your shareholders and explain why." Provide us with how many women you've interviewed and what skills they've acquired so we have a basis to teach the new generation of women in industry.

In the 2014 New Year Honours for services to entrepreneurship and women in industry, Brady was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Brady appeared on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice and was team leader for the girls' team in March 2007, raising over £750,000 for Comic Relief. Brady was a guest interviewer in series four of The Apprentice in June 2008 – interviewing the final five characters. After being impressed by her interview, Brady kept a promise she made to Lord Alan Sugar on screen and offered a job to Claire Young, who was runner-up in the series. As seen on BBC 1, she interviewed candidates again in 2009. She was announced as Sugar's new assistant in the sixth series of The Apprentice on August 30, 2009. (And in series 6, 8, 8 and 9 as a guest interviewer, the same role that Brady played in her first appearance in the main UK apprenticeship series).

Political career

During an interview with The Daily Telegraph in March 2013, Brady speculated that she might be interested in a career in politics. "I think she'd be a huge help," Margot James, MP, said in a televised interview with The Daily Telegraph. I have a lot of admiration for her company's achievements." Brady's essay also suggested that he be made a peer to help more women get into politics and solve the UK's financial crisis. However, Baroness Brady will continue to play an important role in both business and politics.' Cameron should have praised her without delay, and she should accept it. Brady spoke at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester on the topics of small businesses and supporting George Osborne's policies as the Exchequer's Chancellor, and she was also named the government's Small Business Ambassador.

Brady would become a Conservative life peer in the House of Lords on August 8, 2014. Baroness Brady, of Knightsbridge in the City of Westminster, was born on September 22, 2014. Brady was involved in a contentious House of Lords vote over proposed cuts to tax credits on Sunday, voting in favour of the initiative by the government on the measure.

The Daily Telegraph revealed in February 2019 that she was doubting her involvement in non-disclosure arrangements (NDAs) relating to allegations of misconduct on the part of businessman Philip Green's son.

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Awards

• In 2006 Brady was Cosmopolitan magazine's Woman of the Year, and named in the category of 'Woman Who Has Changed The World'.
• In 2006 when she attended The Queen's lunch for Women Achievers and Business Leaders.
• Brady was named as the Revitalise Businesswoman of the Year 2007.
• In December 2008 she won the NatWest Spirit of Everywoman Award for services to women in business.
• In November 2010 she was listed in the business category of The Sunday Telegraph's ‘100 Most Powerful Women in Britain’ and was included in the Evening Standard's list of ‘London's 1000 Most Influential People 2010’.
• She was awarded an honorary doctorate in business from the University of Birmingham in December 2010.
• In 2011 she was awarded Britain's Most Inspirational Women by the Breakthrough for Breast Cancer Inspiration Awards.
• In 2012 she was awarded the CEO of the Year Award at the Football Business Awards.
• In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.
• Brady received a CBE in the 2014 New Year Honours list for her services to entrepreneurship and women in business.
• Brady was named in the Debrett's top 500 most influential and inspiration people in Britain in January 2014.
• Brady was named 10th in The Guardian's 50 most influential women in British sport, on International Women's Day, 8 March 2014.
• Brady was elevated to the Lords as Baroness Brady in August 2014.