4.4 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 30 December 2007
⏱️ 33 minutes
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Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the businesswoman Karren Brady. She is known as the First Lady of Football - and it's a moniker that is well earned. When she became Managing Director of Birmingham City she was just 23 years old, the club was languishing in the second division and it was in dire financial straits. Fifteen years later, and it is in the Premier League and is one of the few clubs to turn a healthy profit.
Along the way Karren has married one of her players, had two children and overcome a life-threatening brain condition. She has always, she says, relied on her enthusiasm, determination and strength of character to see her through.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler Book: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Luxury: My own pillow.
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0:00.0 | Hello I'm Krestey Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. |
0:05.0 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
0:08.0 | The program was originally broadcast in 2007. My castaway this week is the businesswoman Karen Brady. She's been called the First Lady of Football and it's a moniker |
0:35.0 | that's well earned. She became Managing Director of Birmingham City nearly 15 years |
0:39.6 | ago when she was just 23. When she joined, the club was in administration. Now it turns a hefty profit and has risen from the |
0:47.4 | second division to the Premiership. Success in the boardroom and on the |
0:51.5 | pitch is rare enough but along the way she has married one of her players |
0:55.3 | had two children and battled a life-threatening illness a remarkable journey then Karen you've said |
1:01.1 | that during those years in your words you've had to learn how to handle expectations and words of four letters. |
1:08.0 | Can you take us back to 1993 then? You became MD of Birmingham City. |
1:12.5 | What sort of reception did you get when you arrive? |
1:14.5 | It was interesting actually because I remember I'd seen an advert in the Financial Times that said |
1:18.5 | Football Club for sale and I went to my boss and I said look there's this football club |
1:21.5 | for sale in Birmingham it's run down it's in administration I'd like you to buy it |
1:25.2 | and let me go and run it and I remember him saying to me football |
1:28.8 | car and he said you know very male dominated you'll have to be twice as good as the men to be thought as |
1:33.6 | is even only half as good and I said well luckily that's not difficult and what |
1:38.6 | job were you doing at the time I was running a newspaper group I was a |
1:41.2 | sales market director for a newspaper group so he said to me okay he said go on then we'll go and do it I was a |
1:45.0 | a sales market director for a newspaper group. So he said to me okay he said go on then we'll go and do it. And I remember my first press conference I was 23 and I was desperate to look at least 25 |
1:50.0 | because in my mind 25 was very sophisticated and I remember I had this press conference and I had |
1:56.3 | this big hair, big earrings and huge shoulder pads and I sort of did my spiel to the press and I said, |
... |
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