Co-Founder and CEO
Prior to Sweet Readers, Karen was the Founder and President of an educational board game company, TLI Games, which she ran and developed for twenty years.
TLI’s award winning games, sold worldwide at outlets including: Amazon.com, Toys R Us, F.A.O. Schwarz, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and QVC, have garnered numerous industry awards and significant media recognition. At TLI Games, Ms. Young oversaw product development; manufacturing; strategic planning; marketing & promotions; worldwide distribution; managing writers & game developers; special events and benefits; and engaging and interfacing with over 49 corporate sponsors. The New York Times called Ms. Young a “Gamemaker with Unsinkable Spirit”
Prior to her work with TLI Games, Ms. Young was a Vice President and commercial real estate broker in Manhattan at Cross & Brown Company and Peter R. Friedman, Ltd. where she was responsible for managing and leasing major office buildings including 200 Park Avenue (The Metropolitan Life Building), 551 Fifth Avenue (The Fred F. French Building) and 110 East 42nd Street (The Bowery Savings Bank Building). As part of her job, Ms. Young interfaced with a variety of businesses, legal teams, architects and designers; negotiated lease transactions in excess of $100 million; trained and managed a team of brokers who worked under her guidance and devised & executed marketing and promotional programs.
Ms. Young has over 35 years of service experience including being Service Vice President while at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York; her work with disabled children at the renowned Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, NY, placing her on their permanent honor role; serving as co-chair of the alumni fund phonathon and being its top fundraiser for Lafayette College; serving in the Department of Commerce’s Office of Business Liaison in Washington, D.C..; The White House Office of Public Liaison during the Reagan Administration; being Co-chair of the Toy Manufacturers of America’s Toy Bank and responsible for bringing in millions of dollars in toy donations for charity from her peers; and being co-chair of community service for the Parents Association at The Spence School in Manhattan. For her work with Sweet Readers, Ms. Young was selected as a 2018 AARP Purpose Prize Fellow.
Ms. Young is a frequent speaker on business and entrepreneurial subjects and has been featured at NYU’s Stern School of Business; International Business Machines (IBM)’s Marketing Conference; American Express’s Panel on Women in Business; Lafayette College where she guest taught classes on marketing and entrepreneurial studies and was a featured panelist; at the New School in New York, etc. Ms. Young has been featured on CNBC, CNN, Good Morning America, New York 1 News, in The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Chicago Tribune, New York Magazine and The New Yorker. Ms. Young was also a guest host on QVC.
