Ms Karen Clinkard

Karen is a passionate advocate of work-related learning, using live client projects with local and international small businesses.  Her key teaching interests are in entrepreneurial and sustainably driven marketing.  She is currently teaching on a range of UG and PG modules, including marketing strategy, entrepreneurial and digital marketing, as well as being a Module Leader for sustainable marketing, services marketing and consumer behaviour modules. 

Karen takes particular pleasure from supporting Dissertation students to flourish.  Using her networks, business connections and relationships with other sector professionals, she actively supports colleagues and students to seek opportinities to apply learning directly to real business issues, whilst ensuring marketing choices lead to the lowest possible envionmental impact. 

Karen grew up in Oxford and moved down to the South Coast around 30 years ago.  After studying international business with foreign languages and Marketing, she worked up from executive, to marketing management roles with IBM and an international marine technology firm.  An opportunity to apply her industrial experience in a teaching role became available at the University of Portsmouth, where she was promoted from Lecturer, to Senior, then Principal Lecturer over 10 years, including Programme Leader, Curriculum Design and Employability and Enterprise Coordinator Faculty level roles (business school). 

After 14 years in higher education, Karen began studying a Master's, then started a PhD as a mature student, and has continued her passion for developing others as well as herself, by taking on the exciting new challenge of working at University of Southampton in 2019.

Since joining Southampton, she has worked in various roles including Employability and Enterprise Lead (SBS), Curriculum Designer (Reducing Curriculum Complexity Project - central university strategic major priority), Peer to peer interaction workstream lead (CHEP staff development) and Green Student project.  She continues to share her research and teaching practice through conferences, guest speaker events and publications.