Karen is a professional linguist who has relevant tertiary qualifications in translation and a wealth of industry experience in a fields such as: Business, Marketing, Finance, Economics, Life Sciences, Pharmaceutical and IT.

She gained a BSc Honours degree in
International Business and French from the University of Warwick (UK) in
1999 and went on to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing with
the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) in 2000.

Karen moved to Paris with her French
husband in 2003 where she lived and worked until 2015. During her time
in France, Karen worked as a Senior Business Development Consultant
advising and accompanying small to medium sized Irish businesses with
their export and market development strategies in the French market.
Over the years, she developed and honed her talent for translation,
helping her clients to communicate effectively and clearly in both
French and English.

In 2015, Karen moved with her family to
Cape Town, South Africa. She quickly settled into life in Cape Town,
building strong ties with the French speaking community and making full
use of her bilingual abilities, notably to volunteer at the French
School of Cape Town as communications specialist. This quite naturally
led to Karen formalizing her competencies in translation and she earned
the prestigious Diploma in Translation from the Chartered Institute of
Linguists (UK) in 2018 and started her own translation and communications consultancy business, In A Word, the same year.