Karen Parkin - Vice President of Britefire

Karen Parkin is an outstanding leader with an enviable depth of experience in Information Technology, advertising, new media, web development and e-commerce. Wherever she has worked, she has rapidly acquired a reputation for planning, execution, and delivery on complex high-pressure projects demanding sound business judgment, creative flair, and technical innovation.

Her career to date culminated in her leading projects that took Marriott Hotels International from having a US-only web site to its international presence in 20 countries in 9 languages. Marriott’s US and international web sites now take over $17 million a day in online hotel reservations, for all of its 3,000 hotels around the world.

Karen is passionate about everything she does and inspires people around her through striving uncompromisingly for the best. She believes strongly in the importance of Project Management and communications as fundamental building blocks for getting things done professionally. She has developed great understanding of multicultural work environments and international markets and is a recognized guru in internationalisation and localisation. She moves with ease from large corporate structures to small entrepreneurial companies.

Her mastery of state-of-the-art management processes and technology has been gained by “walking the walk” in major projects and in real-world business experiences.

Her bio includes working for or with major companies like IBM, Dow Chemical Europe, the BBC, EURO RSCG (a subsidiary of Havas International), Lockheed Martin, Intel, and Marriott International.