Karren Brady began her career at LBC when she was 18 years old and swiftly moved onto Saatchi & Saatchi as junior Account Handler. She joined Sports Newspapers Ltd in 1988 and became Director within a year.

Karren is now known as the first woman in football. She was Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club from 1993 to 2009 and during that time turned the Club's fortunes around. She took over Birmingham City FC when it was in administration, 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 Stock market valued at the time of float at £25,000,000; she was the youngest Managing Director of a PLC in the UK. During her tenure at Birmingham City Karren increased the average gate of the Club from 6,000 to a sell-out capacity of over 30,000 and in 2009 her business was sold for 82 million pounds. In January 2010, Karren was appointed Vice Chairman of West Ham United FC.