Member of Board of Directors, Helping Our Heroes Foundation

Ms. Karen Theobald-Conlin

Ms. Karen Theobald-Conlin is currently the President and Founding Board Member of the Helping Our Heroes Foundation. As a result of her passion for providing much needed assistance to America's wounded military, she has taken a sabbatical from her executive career in order to donate her expertise and contacts to the Foundation on a full time basis. Ms. Theobald-Conlin operates the foundation, oversees volunteer committee's and committee leadership, and meets personally with high level donors and organizations wishing to benefit service members wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Uniquely qualified for this task, Ms. Theobald-Conlin has raised millions of dollars and negotiated numerous million dollar contracts during her seventeen years as a sports executive and business leader. During her extensive career she has appeared on both domestic and international television and radio as a guest speaker, been interviewed in over 100 articles published in North American print media, and been the spokesperson for critical projects such as the sale of an NHL hockey team. Her passion for her projects and media experience translates to increased recognition for the projects that she chooses to support.

Most recently, Ms. Theobald-Conlin was invited as a guest of the United States Army to travel to Kuwait, Iraq, and Landstuhl, Germany in order to better understand the needs of the military's critically wounded. During this fact finding mission she visited various Combat Support Hospitals in theater, briefed various military leaders on the assistance their wounded colleagues receive at home, and met with medical personnel to determine how to support the efforts of their units while deployed. The information that she gathered has been put to use by the Helping Our Heroes Foundation, and she speaks openly and often about the incredible respect she has developed for US Armed Forces since this trip. As an unbiased civilian, Ms. Theobald-Conlin has been able to share with other corporate leaders the activities that she personally viewed in theater and offered credible examples of the many peace keeping missions that our military are performing.

The Helping Our Heroes Foundation was created in large part because of Ms. Theobald-Conlin's involvement with the Army's NASCAR deal over three years ago. Upon retiring from her notable career as a sports executive, she was contacted by the then Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, and asked if she would provide pro bono guidance as his staff moved forward in negotiations to purchase a NASCAR team for recruiting purposes. While this deal took almost a year to accomplish, Ms. Theobald-Conlin learned how the Army operated and their current recruitment needs as they planned for the next ten plus years. Her efforts resulted in the Secretary of the Army inviting her to travel with a handful of NASCAR drivers and other sports professionals to visit US troops over the 2002 Christmas holidays.

Departing with such drivers as Jerry Nadeau and World Power Boating Champion Nigel Hook, Ms. Theobald-Conlin toured coalition posts in Kyrgyzstan, Kabul, Khandahar and Kuwait. During the ten day trip these invitee's were exposed to the same harsh climates of winter, desert, and war zones that our troops face daily when deployed. Near the end of the trip, the groups visited each of the camps in Kuwait running up to the Iraqi boarder, and listened intently as the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, a four star general, stood up in front of thousands at each stop and told them what it would be like to go to war.

"The immediate thought that came to me as I stood on that stage alongside Army leadership and the drivers, was that for every soldier in front of me there was a mother, father, sister, brother, child, wife, etc. waiting at home for daily news of their loved one. I just knew from that moment, that if we as a nation were asking them to go to war, we as a nation must be ready to care for them should they come home wounded," states Theobald-Conlin in many of her public remarks. Upon her return to the states, Ms. Theobald-Conlin made plans to do just that.

Recognized in her professional career as the sports executive involved in the efforts to maintain the Winnipeg Jets as a Canadian hockey team, Ms. Theobald-Conlin made tremendous strides on behalf of the citizens of the Manitoba Province. During her stay in Canada, she far surpassed any previous record for selling sponsorships and luxury suites. Within 48 hours, over 40 premium suites were sold out providing much needed capital to build a new arena and keep the team. While the transition occurred between the interested ownership groups, Ms. Theobald-Conlin was the owner's representative operating the team and in effect the interim president of the NHL franchise.

Since that time, Ms. Theobald-Conlin has served as the Managing Director of the Kirch Gruppe's US Sport's Division, Prisma Sports. In this capacity she opened their US offices, employed and managed all staff, was directly responsible for the budget and revenue generated, and negotiated on behalf of clients with such entities as the NFL, MLB, PGA, NASCAR, Coca Cola, etc.

Today Ms. Theobald-Conlin is newly married to executive Sean Conlin originally of Ann Arbor, Michigan. She and her husband have placed the Helping Our Heroes Foundation as their number one philanthropic priority to which Ms. Theobald-Conlin donates her professional time. In addition, she serves on the Corporate Fundraising Committee of the Association of Graduates for the United States Military Academy (West Point) as their only non-graduate. Ms. Theobald-Conlin resides in Northern Virginia with her husband as they look forward to their first child next spring.