Karen is Business Development Director for Common Purpose
Customised. She joined Common Purpose UK in 1992 where she worked
on the London courses before establishing Oxford Common Purpose in
1996. She also led the flagship national course 20:20. She joined
the UK Senior Management Team as Sales Director before moving to
lead the development of customised courses.
Prior to joining Common Purpose, Karen worked in a sales role for
Hilton International Hotels producing and delivering sales
strategies for their 101 worldwide hotels.
Karen relishes the challenges of working with dynamic groups of
leaders and of using her entrepreneurial expertise to persuade
organisations to invest in outward-facing leadership development.
She was Chair of the Governing Board of Pewsey Primary School which
moved from satisfactory to outstanding under her leadership and is
passionate about the development of high quality leadership in
public appointments.
Recent experience includes:
- Facilitation of a four-day leadership programme for leaders
from the Zimbabwean diaspora living in the UK. The aim was to
build their capacity to take up leadership roles both in the UK and
in the development and reconstruction of Zimbabwe
- Leadership of What Next?, a course for leaders in transition
from senior executive roles run in partnership with SAID Business
School
- Design and facilitation of a two-day programme for senior
partners from a global professional services firm.
Participants are drawn from across Europe and are all approaching
retirement. The aim of the course is to support them in the
transition from their senior executive roles and to consider new
ideas and opportunities at this time of change
- Design of a two-day programme for country heads from an
international engineering and design company. Based in Amsterdam,
the programme sought to broaden the perspectives of these leaders
to spot new opportunities and learn from the unexpected.
