Karen Sparks

Karen Sparks (née Matthews) (born May 9, 1981 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian businesswoman, philanthropist, and show jumper. She is the Executive Director of Wesley Clover Parks, a director at the Wesley Clover Foundation, a director at Equine Canada, and a director at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital Foundation.
Early life
The third child of Terry Matthews, billionaire chairman of Mitel and Wesley Clover, Karen attended Stephen Leacock Public School and Earl of March Secondary School, and graduated from Carleton University.
Career
She started her career by joining Wesley Clover as an investment advisor and director of government relations. She was a founding director of the Wesley Clover Foundation, a not-for-profit, philanthropic corporation that supports entrepreneurship, healthcare, education, and community initiatives. In 2014, the foundation secured a long term lease of the properties formerly known as the Nepean National Equestrian Park and the Ottawa Municipal Campground to create Wesley Clover Parks. The Foundation intends to invest more than $20 million to give the site a full re-construction. created in partnership with Canadian Olympian rider Ian Millar, upgraded show grounds, new public seating, and new horseback riding trails. The Park hosts non-equestrian facilities, such as skiing and hiking trails, a campground, a nature school for young children, a state-of-the-art artificial turf soccer field was constructed for use as a practice facility during the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, and a concert site was developed that hosted Shania Twain's Rock This Country Tour. The Park intends to draw more international equestrian events, such as the Ottawa International Horse Show as well as more participation from the non-equestrian community in outdoor sports.
Equestrian
Karen Sparks began training with Ian Millar in 1998, some show jumping highlights include: 11th in the Canadian Championships in 2010 with Quervo Gold and High Junior/Amateur champion at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in 2011 with Victoria. Karen Sparks was named Jump Canada 'Athlete of the Month' for June 2010.
Honours
In April 2016, she was named one of Ottawa's top Forty Under 40.
Personal life
Karen currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

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