Karen was brought up on Charnwood Forest and attended Coalville High School. After graduating from the University of Cambridge with an Engineering Degree and a Masters in Manufacturing Technology, she struck out to Scotland to become a Process Engineer in the expanding semiconductor industry.
Her subsequent career encompassed running an Injection Moulding factory, Operations for an Imaging start-up company, Business unit management for an international semiconductor company and latterly, a Senior Director at Apple.
She finally married the father of her three children before shipping them all out to California in 2011. Karen currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area.