East Midlands airport is renowned as a hub for international trade and commerical activity


Karen Smart’s career path to her current position as Managing Director at one of the country’s most strategically-important organisations is, on the face of it, a fairly unconventional one. During a diverse career which has encompassed military


service and a host of high level managerial positions a passion for aviation has, as she explains, always shone through. “I spent 23 years with the RAF, joining in 1983, and spent


the first eight years of my career as an engineer,” says Karen. “I then retrained as an air traffic controller so aviation


and engineering has always held an interest for me right from the start.” While her time with the RAF was an enjoyable and


fulfilling one, a desire to move into strategy and management with a focus on business compelled her to make a switch after over two decades of service. “I loved my time with the Air Force,” she explains. “It was only when I got into senior management that I


thought I wanted to go more commercial and add that extra depth, which is why I decided to embark on what you could call a second career.” In 2006, Karen made the switch to world-renowned


Serco, a British provider of public services which employs over 50,000 people and manages over 500 contracts worldwide. And it was her time at Serco that provided the perfect


foundations for the demanding role that she currently holds with East Midlands Airport. “The move to Serco was a perfect transition, because


Serco provides service back to the Armed Forces,” explains Karen. “I held roles such as Head of Civil Aviation, Operations Manager, as well as Operations and Services Director - these roles culminated in me running Serco’s air and aviation business. I was there nine years and my reason for wanting to move on was that coming to MAG offered me the opportunity to move into a commercial organisation which dealt with other commercial organisations too – it was the next logical step in terms of my business career.” Following a number of director-level roles at MAG based


at Stansted, Karen made the move north in April last year to take on the position of Managing Director at East Midlands Airport – part of the MAG group. It’s a move that Karen believes brings all of her experience and skillsets together. “I’m running an operation with real breadth here in the


East Midlands. At the same time, I have got a responsibility to commercially grow the business,” she explains. “It’s a big operation. We’re 24/7 and while I have six-to-


seven-hundred staff that I am directly responsible for, we have got around 8,000 people operating on the site and I very much believe in a one team approach. “I care as much about other partners working on the


site as I do my own team and we need to be all pulling together to make sure the operation ticks.” Karen leads an airport that is known not just for catering


for the short haul, low cost holiday market but is also renowned as a hub for international trade and commercial activity, earning a reputation as one of the most strategically important airports in the UK. “It’s two complimentary operations,” she explains. “We see close to five million passengers pass through


the airport every year, flying out to 80 destinations. We also have business travellers, predominantly using domestic routes – Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow – and we have Loganair joining in September to pick up the Brussels route. We’re also introducing a new route to Inverness, which will no doubt prove popular. “At the same time, and what makes us unique, is that we


are an international airport that is without doubt a strategic national asset, and I don’t say that lightly. “To put our international trade-based operation into


context, we carry 1,000 tonnes of cargo a day, which equates to around one million packages. “We are the largest pure cargo operation in the UK –


Heathrow carries more volume but that’s in the belly of passenger aircrafts. The cargo is about 80% express cargo, which means that it’s leaving either the UK to mainland Europe or vice versa and we also go way beyond Europe.” So what is the split into terms of these two distinct but


complimentary operations at the airport? “With the express cargo it’s generally an overnight


operation, we have the privilege of operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but actually the passenger and the cargo operation complement each other perfectly. “There is an overlap but, generally, passengers like to fly


in the day and cargo flies overnight. In terms of aircraft movement it’s about 50/50.” As well as maintaining and enhancing the performance


and standing of East Midlands Airport, Karen is acutely aware of her responsibility to the East Midlands, and believes the airport has a key role to play in ensuring the region fulfils its massive potential moving forward. “The airport is so key to this region with it being at the


centre of the three counties and three cities - airports and the regions have a symbiotic relationship and I think we have a big part to play,” argues Karen. “East Midlands Airport really is a core part of the region


and I also sit as an executive member on the MAG senior leadership team, so I have my responsibilities to MAG as well. “I sit on the D2N2 and Leicestershire LEPs as well as


other forums such as Midlands Engine, Midlands Connect and HS2 and give up a huge proportion of my time on the region. “It’s not just the airport’s role that really excites me.


There are various opportunities in different areas that are exciting in their own right - whether it’s the development at Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, the end of coal in 2025 or the opportunities around Toton and HS2.” As well as the East Midlands’ reputation for being a


manufacturing heartland that makes and sells things all over the world, Karen believes the region has other key assets that can come to the fore, especially in relation to International Trade.


business network June 2019 47


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84