Karen has more than 20 years of experience in the retail industry, working in merchandising, both within the buying office and in a training capacity, for several major UK high street retailers. As a business process and systems training advisor at House of Fraser, she was responsible for identifying, developing and delivering specific merchandising training for all levels and roles throughout the business, with a strong focus on range planning principles, in season trading and planning and forecasting through the use of the Merchandise Planner planning system.

As an associate in the First Friday team, Karen evaluates merchandising processes to develop training programmes for all merchandising roles.

She also designs and delivers training materials for planning systems.

Karen finds it immensely satisfying to be able to pass on her merchandising knowledge and experience to others and see them develop in their roles.