Karen Matthews
Former CEO, Ella Baché & Business Transformation Consultant
Profile
Karen Matthews is an exceptional communicator, passionate change maker and award-winning Business Transformation advisor, facilitator and speaker. With over 25 years’ experience leading turnaround, change and growth, Karen is recognised in the market as a confident, innovative leader with a trademark no ‘BS’, warm and friendly style.
Karen’s leadership has been recognised during her career with several awards including Telstra NSW Businesswoman of the Year and PwC National Franchise Woman of the Year.
She has led business transformation strategies for several well-known brands including Ella Baché, where she was CEO for ten years, Guess and her last corporate role as Retail Director for Freedom Furniture. Karen knows change is here to stay and businesses that do not embrace change, will not survive long term.
Current Work:
In 2016, Karen launched her own advisory business using her experience and proven process to guide and support business leaders navigate the challenges of change, turnaround and long-term growth. She is frustrated by the out-dated ‘set and forget’ notion of planning and is a passionate advocate for her brand led no ‘BS’ approach to business transformation and dynamic planning.
In 2020 Karen released her first book Demystifying the road to Change – a no BS guide to Business Planning and long term growth and regularly speaks on the topic sharing her experiences, learnings and challenges. She mentors business leaders and their teams as they navigate change and loves to facilitate strategic planning sessions to either kick start a business’s change process or move them through her full step-by-step process and set them up for long term growth.
Karen has a suite of topics she regularly speaks about including; Demystifying the Road to Change, Think Differently for long term growth, Defining your brand to grow your business, Change Leadership, Keys to Business Success and The Business of retail in an ever-changing world. Karen is also happy to create something specific for your business. Either way, Karen is engaging, warm, inspiring and down to earth. Her experience, real life stories and authenticity captivate her audience and clients and give them the confidence to take action.
Media
Feedback
Karen was a particularly good choice for this market as she is so down to earth and approachable which allowed the audience to relate to her more than some other 'CEO's'. Her presentation was lively and informative and gave the audience some really good tips - they were all madly scribbling notes, which was a very good sign!
Karen is an incredibly enthusiastic, warm, and energetic speaker. She really impressed with her experience and ability to command the audience. We were especially appreciative of her engagement with our audience prior to the event, it really encouraged them up to engage with us during and after the session. Karen also made the process leading up to our event seamless through easy communication and ensuring our intentions and goals for this event were echoed in her talk. She was a great choice to kick off our Speaker Series.
