Making it in the macho world of football - Building Gender Balanced Business

Karren Brady, Managing Director of Birmingham Football Club is a passionate supporter of talented women in the club and has recruited and developed a number of women in the macho world of football. They tell their stories here, highlighting their responsibilities and achievements in their words.

Age: 35

Time at the club:10 years this December (since December 1998)

Main duties: Wholly responsible for the Club’s “Football Administration”. The position of Secretary is seen as the main contact point for the Club by the Premier League, Football League and FA (Football Association).

The main aspect of the role is to facilitate the transfer, registration and re-engagement of all players, facilitation and management of all fixtures, maintain efficiency of all football administration matters, ensure compliance for the football club with all governing body rules and regulations (i.e. Premier League, Football League, Football Association, UEFA – Union of European Football Associations – and FIFA, the Zurich-based Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and ensure all aspects of football regulations are fully communicated to the board, team manager, coaching staff and academy staff.

Main Achievements: Being promoted to the position of Football Secretary after four years in the position of Assistant Football Secretary, particularly as the position of Secretary is a well established and respected position within the football industry.

Earning the respect of my male colleagues is another one of my main achievements, in my view.

The main aspect of the role is working on the actual “football side” which is dominated by men. Therefore, you tend to be the only female on this side of things.

On each occasion a new team manager is appointed you need to earn his respect and trust. There is also a fine balance to the role as it traverses directly the board of directors and the football management staff.

Other departments at the football club employ a lot of women, however in this particular role you are dealing with a side of football that is 100% male dominated. Until there is a female football manager or coach in top flight professional football this will always be the way!

Age: 32

Time at the club: 14 years

Main Responsibilities: I have overall responsibility for the HR Function at the club encompassing all areas of HR and employment law. This includes overseeing all recruitment and associated administration, issuing and reviewing contracts of employment, handling all disciplinary and grievance matters, general staff well-being, conflict resolution, ensuring legal compliance is upheld in line with legislative changes and dealing with all other day-to-day employee/HR issues.

Main Achievements: My main achievement is my progression through promotion from Junior Secretary on joining the Club to the role I hold now, implementing a new department at the club, implementing policies from scratch, and sitting on the current Executive Management Team.

However I get equal satisfaction from day-to-day achievements; whereby you have dealt with a difficult or delicate situation well, performed well under pressure or successfully handled or dealt with any area of work in such a way you can look at yourself and think “I did a good job there”.

Age: 33

Time at the club: 4 months

Main duties: Overall management responsibility for the logistics of the ticketing operation and the team in the ticket office.

Main Achievements: The 2008 /2009 Half Season Ticket campaign, with a sales target to sell more next year.

Recent promotion: Monks replaced Debbie Silver (see below) as Head of Retail & Ticketing in October 2008.

Age: 25

Time at the club: 4 years 6 months

Main duties: Responsible for all of the marketing, press and PR strategy internally and externally across the Football Club including but not limited to Ticketing, Retail, Corporate hospitality, Events, Conferences, Sponsorship, Advertising, First team squad and management team, Academy and the Community programme through e-marketing, direct marketing, press conferences, online marketing and mobile marketing.

I am also responsible for all online activity on the official club websites, matchday programme plus database cleansing and acquisition within the football club.

Main Achievements: After graduating from university I started as a Marketing Executive at Birmingham City FC. Within two-and-a-half years I had become a member of the senior management team, responsible for all marketing within the club. One year later I was also given responsibility for press and PR at the age of 24.

Age: 30

Time at the club: 4 years

Main duties: Ensuring the smooth running of all aspects of the ticket office with regards to technical and staffing issues.

Main Achievements: The continued smooth running of all system aspects of the ticket office, both with regards to the yearly season ticket renewal periods and match ticket sales.

Time at the club: 12 months

Main duties: Promote and sell the Conference & Banqueting facilities at Birmingham City Football Club and oversee the running of the conferences that take place on a daily basis ensuring that the delegates are looked after and leave the premises happy after staging their event.

Main Achievements: Introducing Conference & Banqueting to both Aston Villa & Walsall Football Club. Having worked for Walsall Football Club for 18 months I was promoted to Conference & Banqueting Director and employed there for 10 years in this role.