Karen Price is the CEO of e-skills UK, the employer-led Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms. Focused on improving business competitiveness and productivity, e-skills UK brings together employers, educators and government to address the UK’s current and future IT and Telecoms related skills needs.

Karen is widely recognised as an ‘agenda setter’, uniting industry, influencing government, and supporting the transformation of the UK’s education and training system to meet the changing skills demands of the e-economy. Regularly in demand as advisor and speaker, she promotes a coherent strategy for IT-related skills for the UK to help address the rapidly changing global competitive environment – not only for IT and Telecoms professionals, but also for all business managers and leaders who need to be able to exploit technology, and for all individuals who need to be able to use technology in their day to day lives.

Karen’s early career was in education prior to a wide-ranging career in business, including directorships in the construction and publishing industries, leading company start-ups, and also holding a number of roles in IBM UK’s Corporate Affairs and Global Services divisions. Karen led the mergers which created e skills UK in 2000, and the subsequent successful licensing of the company as a Sector Skills Council in 2003. In 2006, Karen was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to the IT industry.