Page 84 - Powerlist 2020

Public Sector & Third Sector Sonita Alleyne

INTERVIEW

Cambridge graduate Sonia Alleyne is going back to where it all began.
Marianne Lehnis talks to the global media guru about her new ground-breaking
role, and how her Mum inspired her incredible success

hen Sonita Alleyne was Leyton Senior High, was classified as needed to do to get on or get ahead.
born in Barbados in 1968, severely disadvantaged at the time, My parents always stressed that
W Jesus College Cambridge but Alleyne and classmate Sharon education was important, that you had
remained a bastion of white male White – outgoing head Ofcom and to work hard to get ahead.”
privilege and its hallowed halls were soon to be chief of John Lewis – went At 24, Alleyne set up her own media
off limits to women. on to become two of the country’s production company, Somethin’ Else,
Female students were finally most influential black women. and developed the platform into the
admitted in 1979 and four decades Alleyne said there were many world’s first retail radio station, Radio
later Alleyne has become the first factors which gave her the awareness Music Shop.
woman to be appointed Master of needed to get into Cambridge: a By 2004 she was awarded the OBE
this 500-year-old institution. She is programme at her school which for services to broadcasting, and four
the first black head of an Oxbridge identified and encouraged girls to years later her production company
institution. apply and a conversation with a was distributing shows to over 200
It’s a return to home for Cambridge teacher where she felt seen, heard, radio stations in 65 countries – making
graduate Alleyne and she describes and recognised as being an out-of- it the largest syndicator of radio shows
the role as a “call to care”. the-box philosophical thinker. in the UK outside of the BBC.
She brings with her a lifelong legacy That teacher was Gerald O’Connell, The ability to break barriers and use
of trailblazing; at 24 she launched a her resourcefulness to find solutions
media production company which are qualities that show up again and
would grow into global recognition again over the course of Alleyne’s life
and later earn her an OBE for services and career.
to broadcasting. Her outstanding success as a media
Alleyne, who moved to Britain with “You don’t need entrepreneur was born out of turning
her parents when she was two, grew a setback into a stepping stone: “I’d
up in East London and her Caribbean a set path to be been working at Jazz FM and, like
heritage deeply affected her growing many people, was made redundant
up. successful – you during the early 1990s recession. It
“My background very much need ambition” was tough to begin a business, but
influenced my experience and there was no one to tell me that I
outlook,” she says. “It wasn’t easy couldn’t do it. That attitude is a legacy
in England in the 70s. There wasn’t who taught Alleyne and White A-level from my Mum. Don’t sit and wait for
much representation of black people economics. He described her as someone to tell you that you can do
or people from ethnic minorities, “bright and sparkling” adding: “She something or wait for permission. I’ve
especially not in the media. asked the most incredibly searching always been willing to have a go.
“I grew up in Leyton. My early and profound questions. She was “Business is like being an explorer,
years were based on community; so curious about the world. I lent an adventurer, it makes you feel very
people were always popping in and her my copy of Bertrand Russell’s alive to not know exactly where you’re
out, and the connections and shared The Problems of Philosophy and she going and what the outcome will be.
experiences that built up were so rich.” immediately got into it.” I’d say that setting up a business at
As a child Alleyne didn’t have a clear However her greatest inspiration 24 gives you an enormous sense of
idea of what she wanted to do when was a little closer to home – her freedom.”
she was older, but she knew she liked mother. “My Mum was a strong The values that have guided her
storytelling and was reading from the woman who didn’t see barriers,” she career are to “go with the truth and
age of three. says. “If I had a problem, from a very tackle things head on. Be as you’d like
So what gave this young girl the early age, she would tell me to use others to be with you.
courage to be unapologetic in rising my common sense. She encouraged “Career is not divorced from family;
above the limitations society tried to me to figure things out and to reach it’s not divorced from who you are.
place on her? Her secondary school, my own conclusions about what I Your career is there to work for you

84 Powerlist 2020