Following a Drama degree at Birmingham University, I did work experience at the BBC and Two four productions, before joining a brand new local radio station in Exeter.
There was no rule book so I had free reign to get involved in music scheduling, reporting, events and promotional activity. What I found most fulfilling was seeing how important we became to the local community, everything from opening school fetes to turning on the Xmas lights and doing numerous fun runs for charity.
I then moved to London and worked at GMG Radio on Smooth with radio legends like Simon Bates and Mark Goodier; before moving across to Bauer where I moved into commercial programming and was responsible for being the key link between editorial and Sales; this involved working on Magic, Absolute and Kiss answering client briefs, writing scripts, storyboards, directing videos, working with talent and editing. I also taught myself how to produce trailers at the weekend, so that I was capable of doing the whole end to end process- from answering a brief to having a video live or a radio trail on the air.
I then wanted to broaden out and step out of my comfort zone into the world of magazines; proactively I spent time with Art Directors, writers and Shoot directors to learn their crafts in addition to my day job. The hard work paid off and I ended up being promoted to manage a team of cross media producers who worked on large scale multi-platform partnerships. After 5 years at Bauer I then moved to News Uk, where I started by running a Project management team before a promotion to head up a team of Commercial editors, a role which taps into my broad creative background – at a time when my company is diversifying in platforms.