Karen Arnold

Karen Arnold (born 1964) is a British company director and business educator. Since 2006 she has been the chief executive of The Enterprise and Skills Company Limited, based in Wimborne Minster, Dorset.

Arnold grew up in Port Isaac, Cornwall, and studied economics and accountancy. Her Enterprise and Skills Company, founded together with Dr John Knowles, is devoted to promoting entrepreneurship among teenagers. This includes organising competitions in which teenagers briefly set up and run their own businesses.

She has been quoted as saying: "The new buzz word is employability and it is never too soon to encourage students to understand that as well as achieving their academic grades, they need to have a broad portfolio of employability skills which include working together, problem solving and other key skills.”

Arnold has been a director of the Dorset Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and a governor of Weymouth College and of The Bishop of Winchester Academy.

In 2009 she received the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion, and in 2014 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Bournemouth University for services to education and the charitable sector.