Sonita Alleyne

Background

Alleyne was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, and brought up in Leytonstone, East London.

Education

Having attended Leyton Senior High School for Girls, she matriculated at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in 1985. In 1988, she graduated with a Bachelor in Philosophy and began working as a financial adviser for Royal Life.

Career

While an undergraduate, she helped organise the college Spring Ball and sang in a jazz band with Henry Gee, later a Senior Editor of Nature. A year later she joined Jazz FM"s publicity department and, in her two years at the station, proceeded to become a trainee producer. The company quickly expanded and began producing original content for the British Broadcasting Corporation and commercial radio.

As Chief Executive Officer, Alleyne led many projects herself, including the development of Radio Music Shop, the world"s first retail radio station.

By 2008, Somethin’ Else was, according to The Independent, ‘the biggest syndicator of radio programmes in the United Kingdom, outside of the British Broadcasting Corporation, distributing shows to more than 200 radio stations in 65 countries’. In October 2009, Alleyne stepped down as Chief Executive and took on the role of Non-Executive Director.

Since 2008, Alleyne has chaired both the national arts charity Sound and Music and the Radio Sector Skills Council. In July 2012 the Government announced that Alleyne would join the British Broadcasting Corporation Trust, the governing body of the Corporation.

Achievements

• In 2000, Alleyne received the Award of Excellence from the European Federation of Black Women Business Owners. In 2002, she won the Carlton Multicultural Achievement Award for television and Radio. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and the Radio Academy. In 2003, she was awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to broadcasting.

Membership

Alleyne is a member of the British Broadcasting Corporation Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. She is also a member of the Court of Governors at the University of the Arts London, a Non-Executive Director of the British Board of Film Classification and a trustee of the Islington Arts and Media Trust. She sits on the United Kingdom Culture Committee for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and contributes to the Government Department of Work and Pensions as a member of the London Skills and Employment Board and the National Employment Panel.

Connections

colleague:

Jez Nelson