Karen Darby is a serial entrepreneur, and has been a leading figure in the call centre industry for over 25 years. From an inauspicious start (she left school at 16 with one GCSE), Karen embarked on what was to become a classic “rags to riches story”.

She set up her first company, The Decisions Group, in 1983. It grew to become the third largest telemarketing bureau in the UK and won the European Service Industry Forum’s award for Best Service Company. She sold her interests in 1990 and Decisions now trades as part of Sitel Inc.

She went on to establish a successful training and consultancy business, Karen Darby Direct. Clients included BSkyB, Commercial Union, Direct Line, General Accident, Scottish Widows, Telewest and Zurich Insurance.

Karen then set up her third venture, SimplySwitch, a telephone and web-based price comparison service. She secured venture capital funding from Bridges Community Ventures, which was subject to the business meeting certain social criteria such as being based in one of the most deprived areas of the UK. Initially launched as Simply Energy Ltd offering consumers a free and impartial switching service for gas and electricity, it quickly extended its portfolio of products to include home phone, mobile, broadband and a range of financial products and was re-branded SimplySwitch.

SimplySwitch created over 100 jobs in a deprived area (a condition of the Bridges funding) and helped thousands of consumers save over £20m on their household bills. In August 2006 Karen sold SimplySwitch to DMGT (Daily Mail & General Trust) for £22m

Find out more about Karen at her website www.karendarbydirect.com