HIGH FIDELITY

“I left a piece of my heart here.” Karen Emanuel (Genetics 1986) is talking over coffee on one of her regular visits to Leeds. “Lots of my contemporaries still live here – even those originally from the south – and we all have fond memories of university.” 

Karen is here as a member of the Leaders in Residence programme, where entrepreneurs and industry leaders share their expertise with Business School students. “I always ask myself what they can learn from me. I say ‘follow your passions and don’t be afraid to make mistakes’. I never imagined being in business, so if I can do it, they can too.” 

There’s modesty behind the message. Using redundancy money from her first job in the music industry, Karen founded the Key Production Group which designs and manufactures products for the music industry, including CDs and vinyl. She built Key into a market leader, and is now stepping back from the business, having sold the company to an employee-owned trust. 

A raven-haired Goth in her student days, Karen was drawn to Leeds by the music scene: “It was such a vibrant campus and they had lots of live gigs. On my UCCA form, I chose five different courses – all at Leeds. I didn’t get the grades but hounded them until they let me in.” 

By her second year, music had taken over her life. As Events Secretary she booked acts as varied as George Melly, John Cooper Clarke and Misty in Roots to play in the Union. “We even made money too - I booked Billy Bragg for £10 plus his train fare.” 

Despite being “so distracted that I failed my second year”, Karen stayed in Leeds, and spent a year volunteering in a genetics lab, before graduating a year late. “I loved the city. I worked in bars and nightclubs and in a play scheme in Chapeltown. I stayed in Leeds during the holidays and made it my home. 

“I didn’t go to careers fairs and didn’t have a clue what I’d do after graduation. My first job was in Israel, working in the laboratories of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I was there for 10 months but my heart wasn’t in it.” 

After travelling and grape picking in France – “the worst job I ever had” – Karen came back to Britain to follow her passion. “I really wanted to work in the music industry – and was told that I might be able to get a job as a PA or secretary, but I couldn’t even type.” She joined Rough Trade as a receptionist, but quickly moved up to join the production department, working on the physical manufacture of products. 

Redundancy kick-started the next phase of her career: “When I set up Key Production I was still young and had nothing to lose. I was seeing a lot of live music and meeting people. It was quite wild.” 

It was also a success: “I was advertising the business, cold calling people, networking – and it grew organically. If you do a good job, people recommend you. I never imagined being in business but it was all driven by my passion for music and what I learned from being Ents Secretary.” 

When techno anthem Born Slippy became a hit for the band Underworld, Karen realised that following her passions had paid off: “We had a couple of big hits in quick succession and I suddenly thought ‘I’ve actually got a successful company here.’” 

Key Production works with established stars like Nick Cave – “he's very closely involved in how he wants his product to look” – and their work with Australian band Alpha Wolf was recently nominated for a grammy. “I’m a bit of a packaging geek. I love going to the factories and watching things being made.” 

As she steps back from the business, Karen, recently awarded an OBE for her services to the music industry, can now concentrate on her other passion, animals. “I still have things in life that I want to do without the stress of running a company of 70-plus employees. For years I have chosen holidays where I can see wildlife – orangutans in Indonesia, gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda and jaguars in Brazil.” 

It was on one of these trips that she bought an island on Lake Nicaragua “for less than the price of a London garage”, and later oversaw the development of the luxury nature resort and eco-hotel Jicaro. “A lot of people in the music industry would never think about doing anything else – but I’m so excited about going into the next phase of my life and doing different things.” 

As well as her plans to volunteer on conservation projects around the world, supporting students remains part of her agenda. Alongside sharing her story as a business leader, Karen has also given financially to support students, notably in the arts. “A few years ago I reached a point in my journey when I wanted to give back. Students of my era were very lucky. I had a full grant and the government paid our fees and we were even able to sign on during the holidays. It’s very different today. 

“Leeds made me what I am. University is where you learn about relationships and networking, and the music business is very much about that too. Leeds lit a fire in me.”