Karen Marie Shelton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karen Marie O’Connor Shelton (born June 23, 1951 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an Internet and Telephony Entrepreneur[1] who is the CEO and founder of Hairboutique.com (1997), one of the oldest and largest consumer hair portals on the Web. She is also the CEO and co-founder of T&S Software (1995), a telephony software provider of award winning software in the VOIP arena. Shelton is known as "an icon in the hair care industry" [2] having personally authored over 2,500 original articles on consumer hair care topics.
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[edit] Background
Shelton spent the first 20 years of her life "growing up in St. Louis, Missouri" where she attended Our Lady of Sorrows grade school and “Bishop Du Bourg High School” in South St. Louis.[1] In August of 1971 she married Jerry Lee Shelton and moved with him to Triangle, Virginia, near where he was stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
[edit] Education
In December of 1971 Shelton moved back to St. Louis, Missouri with her husband and resumed her interrupted studies at the University of Missouri where she was a member of the Epsilon Xi chapter of Alpha Xi Delta.
Shelton graduated with a B.A. in Sociology with a concentration on industrial and business sociological topics. Upon graduation she began a career in the software industry focusing on systems engineering and management.
Shelton received a M.A. in Public Policy with a focus on business and economics from St. Louis University in 1975. She completed post-graduate work at Washington University and St. Louis University in Public Policy and Business. In 1979 Shelton and her husband were divorced but she kept Shelton permanently as her "professional" moniker.
[edit] Career
In 1980 Shelton met Michael Thornton Thayer in St. Louis, Missouri and married him in 1983. They moved to Dallas, Texas to pursue business and professional opportunities in 1985 where they ultimately founded T&S Software (Telephony & Speech) in 1995, working closely together until Thayer’s untimely death in 2005. Shelton founded HairBoutique.com on August 15, 1997 to provide consumers with comprehensive hair care information.
[edit] Published Works
In addition to the thousands of original articles authored by Karen Shelton on Hairboutique.com, Shelton’s writings on consumer hair care issues are included in Peter Lamas’ work – Dying To Be Beautiful and Hair Profiling.
[edit] Awards
- In the April of 2001 Shelton "was honored at the Working Women’s Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards and named Entrepreneur of The Year – Best Employer - by Working Women Magazine". [3]
- That same year she was also named a 2001 Tech Titan as Emerging CEO by the Technology Business Council. “The Technology Business Council handed out its first set of techTITANS awards - T&S Software's chief executive Karen Shelton received, Emerging Company CEO Award.” [4]
- In 2001 Shelton was also profiled on Cybergrrl (http://www.cybergrrl.com) as “an Internet Marketing Maven”. [5]
- Shelton was featured in Aliza Sherman’s (the original Cybergrrl) book Cybergrrl at Work: Tips and Inspiration for the Professional You for her entrepreneurial work with T&S Software and HairBoutique.com. [6]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Locken, E. Entrepreneur Focus. ISBN 1-4116-5467-6.
- ^ Error on call to Template:cite web: Parameters url and title must be specifiedD.A. Fox. . Retrieved on December 1, 2006.
- ^ ""T&S Software founder wins Employer Award"", "Inside Collin County Business", "April 2001". (in "English")
- ^ "“TechTITANS Award by Sudeep Reddy.“", “Dallas Morning News”, “August 30, 2001”. (in “English”)
- ^ “Cindy Louise Royal” (“2005”). [“http://dspace.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/2152/574/1/royald05103.pdf” “Copyright by Cindy Louise Royal”]. Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
- ^ Aliza Sherman (January 9, 2001). Cybergrrl at Work: Tips and Inspiration for the Professional You. “Berkley Trade”. Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
