Karen has been working in education for more than 25 years, and was appointed as CEO of Carillion Academies Trust in 2016. She subsequently decoupled sponsorship from Carillion and created a new entity, Victorious Academies Trust, which is now a medium sized trust consisting of 14 primary schools in Tameside and Derbyshire, with further schools under application to join. She supports other Trusts regionally and nationally and has a mentoring role for newly appointed CEOs on behalf of the DFE. Karen facilitates training across the UK delivering NPQH and NPQEL programmes and has been a keynote speaker and/or chair at several national conferences. Karen is the chair of the Tameside Schools’ Forum Committee, a trustee at White Rose Academies Trust and a member of the Achievement and Improvement Committee for the Challenge Academy Trust. Karen sits on the North West Regions' DFE Advisory Board and is also a Federation for Education Development (FED) Partner.