Lorraine Heggessey

The first female controller of BBC 1, Lorraine Heggessey is a trailblazing business leader who has driven success in several high-profile roles across sectors.

Her career in television broadcasting has been directly involved in many of the biggest programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing, and Dr Who.

Lorraine Heggessey is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society, and a regular judge for the RTS and BAFTA.

She has a wide range of experience managing talent, leading change, and championing inclusivity and diversity.

Contact Great British Speakers today to book former BBC controller Lorraine Heggessey for your next event.

Type Of Speaker

Burnout Business & Finance Creativity, Change & Innovation Entertainment Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Female Speakers Health & Wellbeing Keynote Leadership & Teamwork Media Mental Health Presenters Speaker

More About Lorraine Heggessey

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email Great British Speakers now to book business speaker Lorraine Heggessey for your next live event.

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Testimonials

Lorraine delivered a highly captivating and insightful after-dinner speech at our recent hotel owners’ event. Her dynamic and engaging storytelling not only entertained our audience but also left a lasting impression on everyone present. Her wealth of experience and achievements in the broadcasting industry provided a unique and inspiring backdrop to our evening, sparking conversations and reflections throughout. Thank you Lorraine for contributing to the huge success of our event!
RBH Hospitality Management

On the day, Lorraine Heggessey totally exceeded our expectations. Every single word she delivered was inspiring and thought-provoking; she effortlessly delivered high impact leadership insight in a totally relatable and digestible way. The buzz in the room at the end of this session was unlike anything I have ever experienced.
Zoe Tuffs, Head of Learning and People Development, Micebook.

We asked Lorraine to talk to our audience of senior public sector leaders about her experiences of driving success and transformation in complex organisations in both the public and private sectors, her advice on driving radical change, and her reflections on leading under public scrutiny. Her insight was thought-provoking and relevant, and she took the time to draw the links between her experience and that of our audience. We have received excellent feedback about her session and would be keen to use her again for future speaking engagements.
Newton Europe

Lorraine came to speak at a Clifford Chance London partner offsite and enthralled the audience with her explanation of her success at Talkback Thames and the BBC and how to engender change in a large organisation. Lorraine’s sharing of her secrets to success was not only hugely enjoyable but also realistic and easy to emulate. I couldn’t recommend Lorraine highly enough. Thank you.
Clifford Chance Michael Bates, Regional Managing Partner UK

Lorraine Heggessey joined us for our Decision Intelligence summit, AltitudeX, to talk about the decisions that have shaped her career in the broadcast industry. She absolutely blew us away! From lessons learned during an undercover stint in Russia to heading up the Royal Foundation, her session was captivating – definitely one of the highlights of the day!
PEAK Emma Davidson, Head of Communications

Right from the very start Lorraine captivated our audience with her mesmerising charisma and energy. Her content took a leadership theme, with a clear emphasis on her ability to empathise, empower and inspire throughout her career. Lorraine was true pleasure to work with and we would be over the moon to work together again.
Centaur Media, Alyssia Smith, Events Content Manager

Lorraine Heggessey is quite simply inspirational; she is that perfect blend of honest, accessible and full of insight. Lorraine comes alive as much in virtual environments as she does on stage. At the start of lockdown Lorraine delivered one of our most highly attended “industry greats” masterclasses to TV freelancers who were reeling from the impact of Covid-19. Lorraine was exactly the tonic they needed – both reassuring and aspirational. “I was about to give up” said one participant “but Lorraine has totally given me the confidence and inspiration to continue.
BBC Content, Donna Taberer, Head of Talent

Lorraine Heggessey is a hugely engaging and entertaining virtual speaker with great advice to share from her wealth of experience as a successful leader in the content industry. As a virtual speaker, she is incredibly vivacious whilst still being able to pack a punch in terms of leadership lessons. Wit, wisdom and wonderful stories – an hour is not enough – book her for a series!
Women in Film & Television, Tracy Forsyth, Mentoring Scheme Producer

Lorraine has chaired a number of very high profile sessions for the Royal Television Society. Lorraine has a great stage presence, the experience and brain power to ask the searching questions of very senior executives, and the peer respect from them of having held very senior positions herself. Lorraine has chaired a number of President/CEO panels at RTS Cambridge – discussing strategic priorities and the future of their businesses. In addition, Lorraine has chaired other panels dealing with policy in public service broadcasting, the creative and business challenges of running television production, and the position of the UK in a global market.
Royal Television Society, Theresa Wise, CEO

I booked Lorraine Heggessey to speak at a career networking event for 100 senior women at Shell, whilst I was Head of Global Diversity Strategy & Planning for Shell in 2004. Lorraine was then Controller of BBC1 and was asked to draw on her own career experiences to provide insight and advice to the women in the audience which would help them navigate their own careers in corporate life.

Lorraine Heggessey was a highly engaging speaker who kept her audience with her from beginning to end. Her seemingly spontaneous style belied the preparation that clearly went into what she said- her anecdotes and examples hung together well and she constantly brought her audience back to the main theme, whilst remaining entertaining. She managed to draw out the similarities for women of operating in two seemingly different worlds. Lorraine has an ability to get to the heart of the issue on which she is speaking and makes her delivery very relevant to her audience.
Brook Graham Limited, Jacey Graham, Director