Lorraine Heggessey’s media career started after she graduated from Durham University, working for the Westminster Press Group as a trainee reporter on the Acton Gazette newspaper. In 1978, she applied for a BBC traineeship but was rejected, and so she volunteered in hospital radio and joined a local newspaper. The following year she reapplied for the BBC traineeship and was accepted, spending the next 15 years in current affairs.
Lorraine Heggessey – Media Career
Lorraine is best known for being the first female controller of BBC 1, leading the channel to become the most popular in Britain. With an annua budget of around £1 billion, she revamped Saturday night flagship shows, including Dr Who and Strictly Come Dancing, as well as dramas Spooks and Waking the Dead.
After a decade working for the BBC, she became the CEO of talkbackThames, one of the UK’s largest production companies, producing television shows such as The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, QI, Grand Designs, the IT Crowd, and The Bill.
In 2012, Lorraine founded Boom Pictures, which went on to become the 8th largest independent consolidated production group in the UK after just two years.
Her production credits include Panorama (1982-86), Dispatched (1991), Animal Hospital (1994-95), The Human Body (1998), Capturing Mary (2007), QI (2006-09), Glorious 39 (2009), and The Sinking of the Laconia (2011).
Since 2014, she has been advising Channel 4’s Growth Fund, which invests into small and medium-sized production companies. She advises the leaders on potential investments and how to deliver creative and commercial successes.
She has collaborated on programmes documenting the treatment of trade unionist leader Arthur Scargill, was the first to interview the notorious criminal “Mad” Frankie Fraser, and was part of the decision to fire Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon.
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Lorraine Heggessey – Other Work
Outside of the television world, Lorraine Heggessey is the chair of the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, and Chairperson of The Grierson Trust, supporting the art of documentary film making.
In 2016, Lorraine Heggessey became the Director of Pivigo, a growing data hub that supports and connects international data scientists. In the same year, she started working for Angel Academe, a global collaborative group that encourages women to invest in female-led tech companies.
She took a complete division from her media career in 2017 when she became CEO of The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, now called The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales. She helped to develop and refine the foundation’s model of venture philanthropy to tackle some of today’s biggest challenges, including mental health, and wounded veterans.
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Lorraine Heggessey – Public Speaking
Lorraine is now a highly sought after inspirational speaker on leadership, business, and media, at corporate events. She often draws on her experience as a woman business leader in male-dominated industries to help make change in the commercial and public sectors.
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Lorraine Heggessey – Keynote Talk Topics
Making Change Happen: Lorraine discusses the catalysts for change, alongside the obstacles that may stand in the way and how to overcome them.
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Star Quality Leadership: Lorraine explains that the key to success is creating a simple and attainable strategy that is communicated across all channels. She encourages leaders to be themselves, and to use their individual strengths and lead by example to get the best out of people.
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Creating an Intrapreneurial, Empowered Work Culture: Encouraging a freelance mentality where staff seek out opportunities will create a productive and highly motivated culture. Lorraine encourages leaders to reward new ideas and potential, to make everyone responsible for their own career.
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Women Thriving in Business: Haven risen to the very top in her industry, Lorraine looks at how to identify your potential, and how asking what you want is fundamental to building a successful career. Lorraine explains that it is time to accentuate the positives, and recognise that having women in leadership roles is an asset for all industries.
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Mental Health at Work: Drawing on her experience working with the Royals’ “Heads Together” campaign, Lorraine talks about the stigma around mental health, and how this can affect anyone in the workplace, from junior trainee to senior executive.
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Lorraine Heggessey clients include: A+E Networks, Deloitte, EY, Firefox, Google, Latham, Lendlease, Mentor, Micebook, Newton, NHS, Oracle, Radian, Royal Television Society, Shell, Sky, Thomson Reuters
To check fees and availability for Lorraine Heggessey, contact Great Business Speakers on 0044 (0)1753 439289
