Karen Brady lights up Energy Event

She might not have a background in the energy field but Apprentice star and 'first lady of football' Karen Brady certainly illuminated the Energy Event 2011.


Introducing herself to the delegates at the show’s Energy Insight Conference Ms Brady told a story of when she was introduced to the press as the new managing director of Birmingham City Football Club in 1993.

Facing journalists for the first time, Ms Brady, who was just 23, was asked for her ‘vital statistics’.

Ms Brady explained she held her ground and, at the end of the press conference, the journalist told her she might not have a penis, but she certainly had ‘massive balls’.

She went onto explain how she transformed what was a rundown football club, competing against better run and more successful local rivals, into a successful sporting force.

Ms Brady, often referred to as the first lady of football, revealed the sort of business model the ‘Big Six’ energy firms would be wise to copy to win back customer support and confidence.

She said: “We invented kids for a quid something that has been copied by many other football clubs since.

“We gave away free tickets to children on school meals for instance some of these families exist near to or on the poverty line.

“So the expense of attending a football game is something they could never afford.”

Ms Brady also said that by the end of her time at Birmingham they employed more than 30 fulltime community support officers and nine fulltime teachers.

She added: “We did a lot of work with children who had truanting and other problems in the community.”

Luke Walsh

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