BONI SONES OBE CV: Email:[email protected]

Skills and achievement: I have had a 38 year career in the field of media, government relations, and politics. I have an influential network of contacts with national journalists, and politicians of all parties. I have been at the forefront of the “convergence” agenda and on January 1st 2009 was awarded an OBE for “Services to Broadcasting and Government PR”.

As a freelance political and public affairs editor I have developed a high profile portfolio career in politics, government policy making and the media and am proficient in a number of skills at a senior level. In June 2014 I was given the title of “Policy Associate” at the Centre for Business Research, University.

January 1999 to present: Director, ECS (Effective Communication Strategies)

I run my own communications company ECS campaigning in government and politics advising Quangos, MPs, charities, and government bodies on high profile social action campaigns using media and new media, writing and delivering communication strategies, writing press releases, training, scripting Q and As, and feature articles. I have worked in- house for clients heading departments, marketing and communications teams and delivering public affairs strategies. From Jan 02 to July 03, I acted as Head of Public Affairs for the Lottery Distributor, Community Fund, crisis managing on many occasions. I have worked for a number of MPs, across party in Westminster.

Since 2008 I have worked freelance broadcasting and writing for the exam Board, Cambridge Assessment, part of Cambridge University and seven other Cambridge University Departments in the field of business, innovation and economics. At The Centre for Business Research at Cambridge University I regularly edit its Blog Content and have secured audio interviews with leading academics turning them into articles for the National media. I am also working regularly with the Cambridge Service Alliance at the IfM.

I have been six different correspondents for the media covering Nuclear Energy, Local Government, Home Affairs, Social Affairs, Education, and now Economics and Business too, four of these were directly “on-air” reporting live on TV and radio including BBC Radio 4 and BBC News 24. I have made documentaries for BBC2 on Education and Special Needs and outputted over 100 half hour programmes for the BBC being in charge of the Gallery and all the reporting staff and live link-ups.

I have also recently conducted around 200 interviews with global business leaders and have gone on to work directly for some of them including the global advertising agency which Sir Martin Sorrell heads – WPP. I have travelled with WPP to China and over the past three years have scripted articles, books and podcast documentaries for “WPP The Store” on issues of global retail including “China’s Top 50 Brands”, and “The History of Retail”. I have also helped the government economist Vicky Pryce write her book “Greekonomics”, on the economic crisis in Europe and subsequently “Prisonomics”.

My website www.bonisonesproductions.com has favourable testimonials, including from Harvard University. I was awarded a Research Associate status at SOAS, and in the early 1990s was Elected as a Fellow at the Department of Education at the University of East Anglia with Professor John Elliott when I worked as an Education Correspondent for the BBC. In 2008 I was nominated for a “Women in Public Policy” Award. I am now a Policy Associate at the Centre for Business Research, Cambridge University.

Previous career in journalism:

I am a trained BBC TV and Radio correspondent, a BBC TV political editor, was chosen to help set up BBC News 24, worked for BBC Radio 4 and have all the presentation skills, organisational skills, technical skills, financial skills and knowledge of media that this requires. I have overseen budgets of £1 million a year, line managed up to 20 staff and written performance appraisals. I am an experienced film and programme maker. I am a skilled presenter and interviewer. I have trained some of the young names on BBC TV today.

Nov 1997 to Jan 99: BBC News 24. Senior Broadcast Journalist.

April 1995 to Nov 1997: BBC Television East. Series Editor East at Westminster.

1993 to 1995: BBC Radio . Senior Producer.

1991 to 1993: BBC TV East. Local Government and Education Correspondent.

1987 to 1991: BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. Radio reporter and producer.

1985 to 1987: Cambridge Evening News. Assistant News Editor, Features Editor.

1982 to 1985: Cheltenham Source. News Reporter and Women's Page Editor.

1978 to 1982: News and Feature Reporter, East Anglian Daily Times and Ipswich Evening Star.

1975 to 1978: Trade Union Research officer for BIFU and then NALGO.

Awards:

 In September 08 I was voted one of the 20 most influential women in Britain by Women in Public Policy Magazine. I was also nominated for the Dods Scottish Widows female political journalist of the year award 08.

 I have also been a nominee for the Channel 4 Political Awards in January 2008 and a nominee for the Orwell Prize in journalism in 2005 for my book and work with women politicians.

 I help judge the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Excellence Awards, Broadcasting.

Education:

1971/73: 2:1 BA Hons, Public Administration, Leicester Polytechnic.

Special positions:

 June 2014: Policy Associate, Centre for Business Research, Cambridge University.  Autumn 2011: CISD Research Associate at Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, School of Oriental and African Studies, London  Summer 03: Chosen and trained to be lay-member Home Office selection panels helping to recruit Chief Prison Officers, Chief Fire Officers and Chief Constables through the high potential development scheme.  In 1993: I was Elected Education Fellow, University of East Anglia.

Campaigns for others:

My pro-bono campaigns include “Save the YPS in Cambridge, the Young Person’s Psychiatric Service” which led to questions in the House of Commons. I also initiated with friends the “Free the Cambridge Two” when charity workers running a homeless hostel where drugs were found were jailed, this subsequently led to the publication of the award winning book “Stuart A Life Backwards”, by Alex Masters. Another pro-bono campaign is my www.wpradio.co.uk for women, which set out to create a better profile for women in politics and encourage more women to enter parliament.

I have assisted the Cambridge Summer Music Festival in its substantive fund-raising campaign, and have regularly achieved fund raising targets for newspaper and broadcast appeals, including hospital scanners, children's hospice targets, Christmas appeals for the young and the elderly and the BBC's Children in Need appeal locally in the East. All this requires relationship building skills.

Hobbies:

 Writing: I have recently published four books of short stories of Suffolk in the 1950s - “The Mermaid’s Tale” and “Prequel to the Mermaid’s Tale” and a related short story series including “Food on the Table,” “Dear Alex”, “20 Poems for 2012”, “Love Travels Well in July”, “12 Stories of Christmas – 3 Sisters and an axe”. My short stories of Suffolk have appeared in the East Anglian Daily Times, on Anglia TV and talked about on BBC Radio Suffolk. www.wpradio.co.uk/books. I love storytelling and have fully trained voice skills to read my stories live.

Family:

I have three grown up children. I walk, read, bell ring and collect art.

Achievements:

 At a Cabinet level I have worked for Ministers and MPs in Westminster on specific creative campaigns. Harriet Harman MP, Labour's Deputy Leader and The Home Secretary The Rt Hon Theresa May MP are supporters of my work with women in Parliament www.wpradio.co.uk and www.parliamentaryradio.com . I also advised Labour minister Vera Baird QC on press work for their Equalities Bill. I headed the press team for Chris Huhne in the Liberal Democrat first leadership race which won plaudits in the press, and have worked for Joan Ruddock MP and David Howarth MP.  I have created BBC style podcast channels of communication through the web at a CEO level in Finance, Economics and Science for Cambridge University Judge Business School, Cambridge University Institute for Manufacturing Sciences, Cambridge University Engineering Department, and in Parliament, women in politics and government globally www.wpradio.co.uk. All have established high profile audiences. I broadcast and also make radio and TV documentaries for these channels interviewing the most senior people in business, economics, science and politics today. www.bonisonesproducitons.com has examples of my work.

 Mentoring: I have worked alongside some of the most successful young graduates and post graduates in government, politics and the media and the not-for-profit sector over the past 15 years. I have advised and guided them pro-bono through the first five years of their careers after leaving University, working one to one with them and answering their calls sometimes daily. I am committed to education of the young. Testimonials below.

 I have just completed a significant body of “collaborative” work over nine years charting women’s recent political history. I have written a new book “When There’s a Woman in the Room – Women MPs Shaping Public Policy, a follow up to “Women in Parliament: the New Suffragettes,” both are based on interviews with over 450 women MPs across all parties since 1997, some in government. I co-produced a BBC Radio 4 documentary on the first book called “A Monstrous Regiment” presented by Jackie Ashley - www.workingwomenproductions.co.uk. In August 2010 the British Library opened a historical audio archive of 82 interviews of women in politics from the book. The House of Commons Works of Art Committee purchased four photographic portraits of women MPs party by party which I studio produced and they now hang in the Upper Committee Corridor there. www.wpradio.co.uk/photos . I have performed readings from the book at the Tricycle Theatre in London and the organisers, Norn productions said: “I was thrilled with your reading on Monday.” From March 2014 all 350 interviews for www.wpraido.co.uk and www.parliamentaryradio.com are now catalogued in the “Boni Sones and Associates” archive at the London School of Economics.

 I previously ran a successful training arm of my company in local government – teaching a range of communication skills to councillors and public sector employees in the and London to BBC Radio 4 standards. Skills taught range from media training, to report writing, presentation skills, public speaking, writing for the web, new media and copy writing: www.ecsskillnet.co.uk

 Home Office: I acted as a lay assessor for the Home Office helping to assess high potential candidates who attend three day assessment centres for the fire, police and prison service. I have been trained to a high standard to help interview, assess and mark these candidates through this intense process. I have passed all the necessary training courses and was regularly called on to do this exacting work until it changed.

Testimonials:

Mentoring:

Anastasia de Waal , Deputy Director and Director of Family & Education, CIVITAS: “Thanks for all the good advice you have given me over the years on public policy, media and strategy. Your hand holding has undoubtedly helped me on a daily basis to connect with the media and develop my thoughts on public policy over the years.”

Nick Aldridge, Chief Executive, MissionFish (UK): “I wanted to acknowledge the help you gave me when I left University and started my career in the Third Sector. We had so much fun working together on various publications on public policy, attending party conferences together, and working together on media strategies. Your good advice guided my work with the National media to a successful outcome, sometimes through extremely tricky waters.”

Jack Rigg, Partner, Panopticon: “I shall never forget the times we worked together in Westminster on a number of local and national political campaigns. It is easy to get bad advice when you leave University, but it was your mentoring and continuing support that has helped me achieve success and that gave me the confidence to go on and start-up my own consultancy. Thanks Boni.”

Politics:

Theresa May MP: “Boni - Well done - good news and thanks for your determined efforts over the years. It is only your willingness to keep on pushing that has led to this outcome. Best wishes, Theresa”

Chris Huhne MP: “Thanks very much for all your hard work during the leadership campaign. I hope it hasn't put you off politics forever. You are a very reliable source of good media advice. “ Many thanks, Chris

Lynne Featherstone MP: ”Hi Boni, Well - huge congrats to you. I can not think of anyone who works so hard to make sure that women are there and documented. We have a lot to be grateful to you for. And without you - there would be no such record at all. Have a break - but only a break! Best and see you soon,” Lynne Featherstone MP, Equalities Minister

Cambridge Judge Business School:

“Boni has done a fantastic job of building our archive of Leadership Speaker podcast interviews. The speakers are all leaders in their fields and the interviews accordingly require a great deal in the way of preparation, intelligence and wit. Boni has all of these qualities in abundance and has produced some outstanding journalism for us in the podcast format.” Dr Jochen Runde, Director of the MBA, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

“Ms Boni Sones has collaborated with the Centre for International Business & Management (CIBAM), which I direct, producing podcasts for our events. Boni has consistently produced high quality broadcast podcasts for the Centre’s Symposia, which attract some of the most senior CEOs and business leaders from leading companies all over the world. She conducts these interviews diplomatically and skilfully, and is able to make the interviewees feel relaxed in her company. Not only are we impressed with the quality of the broadcasts, but her interviewees treasure these encounters and email us requesting copies of them. Her strong analytical skills help her to produce some very educative podcast documentaries for our website. Overall, I consider Boni an asset to any high powered communication team.” Dr Christos Pitelis, Director of the Centre for International Business and Management

Third Sector: Stephen Bubb, Chief Executive, ACEVO :"Just a note to say thank you so much for all the help you gave us - it has been a boost for the organisation and it has been great to get our message across."

Richard Gutch, formerly Chief Executive, Futurebuilders: "Dear Boni, I wanted to thank you very much for all your hard work in making yesterday's conferences such a success and in securing coverage for us in so many places. You have been an enormous help to us over the last few months and I am most grateful."

Bene’t Steinberg, Group Public Affairs Director, University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate: "ECS helped us to produce a video which effectively demonstrated our capabilities and strengths to Ministers, helping us to alter the perception of our organisation for the better in the eyes of decision makers."

Lynne Berry, formerly Chief Executive, Equal Opportunities Commission: "Our new press, PR, campaigns and government affairs people have got something to build on after you set us on the right path."

Home Office interviewing: Roger Serle, IDS Recruitment Team: “This is just a brief note to say thank you very much indeed for digging me out of a very deep hole by acting as an assessor at both of our recent IDS final stage assessment centres - on the last occasion at only 24 hours notice. We would have struggled to run the centre efficiently without your last minute assistance and I am very grateful to you indeed. Once again thank you very much indeed for your time and commitment. Will be in touch again next year!

Training:  “Just a quick email to say a huge thank you for all of your hard work this week. I am attaching the collated evaluation feedback from both courses and hope you agree these are really positive. “ Lucy Powles, Local Government East Midlands.  “I've had nothing but good feedback from those who attended the "Writing for the Web training" - quite a few seem to have come away really inspired, so thanks again!" Chris Hartley, Head of Public Affairs, Derbyshire County Council.  "Your media training skills have increased our awareness of how to seek publicity and what stories to publicise. You have an incredibly broad knowledge of the media, print, radio and TV. Thank you for your help." Lynn Morgan, formerly Regional Manager, Community Fund.  "Just a quick note to say thank you for running the training course on Monday. I now feel more confident at tackling solo interviews; I will definitely be seeking opportunities to put the theory into practice. Media skills are equally useful for presentations!" Sally Hind, formerly Chief Executive, South Cambridgeshire Primary Care Group.  "May I thank you on behalf of your erstwhile students on Friday morning for all your advice and guidance which will be very useful and is already much appreciated." David Adamson, Director, University of Cambridge, Estate Management.

 The guidebook I wrote on “Dealing with the Media” was reviewed by Cambridge University: The Verdict: “The best thing of its kind we've read in years.”

 “I am writing to thank you for the media training courses you ran for us, which were very successful. All the feedback we have had has been very positive.” Bob Pearson, Head of Press and Public Relations, Cambridgeshire County Council.

Journalism:

 “Enthusiasts, creative, often inspirational, never short of a word. Boni is always open to change, in fact she depends upon it. The quality of her mind lies behind the production of each programme with the broad sweep of thought most impressive.” David Holdsworth, BBC East.

 “Boni's creative ability can be heard on a daily basis, not only through the treatment of individual items but in the scope and vision demonstrated in the items covered.” Alison Sargent, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

 “Boni's work as Local Government Correspondent, has earned her the respect of colleagues in both television and radio.” Arnold Miller, Head of Centre, BBC East.

 “Boni remains a valuable asset to the paper as a freelance and she is a very useful sounding board for the development of new projects. She is full of idea, enthusiasm and the drive to bring them to fruition.” Robert Satchwell, Editor Cambridge Evening News.

 “In my dealings with Boni I knew her as a highly competent feature writer. She has a keen news sense and often demonstrated determination and perseverence to see a story through to the end. She has a lively personality and an energetic enthusiasm for her work. I am confident she would make a significant contribution to any journalistic team.” Crawford Gillan, Editor, Ipswich Evening Star/East Anglian Daily Times.

 “Boni was responsible for developing Cambridge Evening News weekly Green Page. Boni and I liaised over many editions of the Green Page and our relationship proved to very successful. Often Boni's investigations helped further my work at the Cambridge City Council because of the contacts she made. Her articles were always well researched and hard hitting, they were proactive and informative.” Frances Applin, Environment Protection Development Officer.

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