Karen Kimsey-Sward, COO – Dale Carnegie Chicago

Karen Kimsey-Sward has over 25 years of experience working with a wide range of organizations helping them to move to the “next level” of performance. She’s known for her strategic yet practical approach to working with leaders at all levels to drive revenue growth, operational excellence and employee engagement. Karen brings a unique perspective to clients as a business owner who has been through all stages of a company’s life; from its founding through the various levels of growth.

Karen is Chief Operating Officer for Dale Carnegie Chicago. She is providing leadership, management and vision to create and sustain employee/customer engagement while ensuring profitable growth.
Previously, Karen was a Vice President of Franchising for the Americas with Dale Carnegie & Associates and worked with franchisees in all areas of their business. She provided leadership to identify opportunities, developed growth plans, recruited top talent, and executed marketing/sales strategies and training. She and her team served as internal business coaches to franchisees.

Prior to joining Dale Carnegie & Associates, Karen was co-founder and principal of Performance Potential Inc, a management consulting firm.

Karen was also an Executive Vice President/COO for FTR, a performance improvement company in Chicago. Over the years she held a variety of roles including: top producing salesperson, sales manager, business/sales coach, consultant and COO. She played a critical role in helping this organization achieve significant growth to become one of the top performance improvement companies in the Financial Services Industry.

Over the years, Karen has served on various Boards and is currently a Board Member for the SBAC.

Karen received her Bachelor of Business Administration/Marketing from Marshall University.

Guest appearances by Karen Kimsey-Sward: