Mother of six is Tesco's new superwoman

A new superwoman bestrides the City. Mother-of-six Karen Cook - already a managing director for investment banking giant Goldman Sachs - has been appointed a non-executive director at Tesco.

The financial wizard is regarded as one of the most powerful women in the Square Mile and today's appointment can only enhance her influence and reputation.

Tesco chairman David Reid said: "I am delighted Karen Cook is joining the board of Tesco.

"Karen is a highly-respected investment banker and brings her considerable knowledge of the global financial markets."

Ms Cook, 50, who juggles a stressful career with bringing up her six children, is close to eclipsing the City's former superwoman Nicola Horlick.

Ms Horlick wrote a manual entitled Can You Really Have It All? about her experiences as a mother and high-flying executive.

Before joining Goldman Sachs in 1999 Ms Cook was co-head of UK corporate finance at Schroders and worked for the First National Bank of Chicago.

Between 1997 and last year she was a non-executive director at high street retailer Dixons, their first female directorial appointment.

She was educated at Bristol University and completed an MBA at Manchester University in 1982.

City headhunter Yve Newbold said of her: "Today's chairmen are looking for balance on the board, but they are not looking for the token woman any more. Karen really punched her weight."

Ms Cook likes to keep a low profile and little is known about her private life. After a career in which she took the City by storm Ms Horlick, who has five children - her daughter Georgie died of leukaemia aged 12 - is now in the throes of a divorce from her husband, Tim.

At the moment she is busy planning the launch of a new cancer centre of excellence at Bart's Hospital - a ?13 million screening and diagnostic wing for the treatment of breast cancer that officially opens in

October.

A new generation of City superwomen has risen to prominence in the past 10 years.

Among the best known are Ms Horlick, formerly head of SG Asset M a n a g e m e n t ; Barbara Cassani of Go fame; and dotcom tycoon Martha Lane Fox.

However, their successes have often resulted in a heavy personal toll. Ms Horlick, the 42-yearold millionaire investment fund manager, stunned the City when she quit SG Asset management, a company she helped to set up.

Then she shelved plans to relaunch her career in Australia with finance giant AMP and split with her husband.

Another multi-millionaire City woman, Nicola Ralston, former head of investment strategy at Schroders Investment Management, quit her 60-hour-a-week job to spend more time with her three young children.

Ms Cassani and Ms Lane Fox both sold their stakes in the businesses they built for millions in a quest for a better quality of life.