Karen Furst – Secretary
Karen is originally from Buffalo, NY and currently resides in London, England with her husband and their two children. She received her MBA from New York University Stern School of Business in 1999 and her BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1993.
Karen started her professional career in commercial banking where she spent four years working in the branches for M&T Bank in Buffalo. Initially Karen focused on retail customers where she marketed and sold both banking and investment products. Later Karen turned her attention to the commercial side of the bank and managed a $20 million commercial loan portfolio consisting of small businesses with annual revenues up to $5 million.
After completing her MBA degree, Karen joined Deloitte Consulting where she spent eight years consulting to large financial services firms working on strategy and operations related projects. Karen’s projects included business and technology strategy, process redesign, program management and systems implementation work.
After relocating to London in 2006, Karen decided to leave Deloitte Consulting and spend time at home with her children. Since then, she has used her spare time to actively participate in her children’s schools. She became involved in the Parent Teacher Association at her children’s nursery school from 2007 – 2009 and later headed the group in 2010. Since then, Karen has taken on the role of PTA representative at both of her children’s schools.