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Anna Jones
CEO | NED | Investor | CEO Telegraph Media Group | NED Brighton & Hove Albion football club | IC Chair Mercuri VC | Co-founder AllBright |
Anna Jones is a prominent business leader and executive with a distinguished career in media and publishing. She currently serves as the CEO of The Telegraph Media Group, making history as the first woman to lead the organization.14 Prior to this role, Anna was the CEO of Hearst UK, where she was also the first female to hold that position in the company's 100-year history.1
Career Highlights
Leadership Roles: Anna has been in senior leadership positions for nearly two decades, with her first significant role being the Marketing Director at a publisher in 2005.5 Throughout her career, she has broken barriers and set new precedents for women in leadership.
Entrepreneurship: At the age of 42, Anna co-founded AllBright, demonstrating that successful entrepreneurship can happen at any stage of life.3
Achievements and Impact
Anna is known for her commitment to advancing women in the workplace. She has been vocal about the challenges faced by women who balance career and family responsibilities.2 Her leadership style emphasizes setting ambitious goals and appreciating team efforts, as evidenced by her recent acknowledgment of The Telegraph Media Group team's achievements in 2024.4
Personal Life
While specific details about her personal life are limited in the provided information, we know that Anna has two children and has managed to build a successful career while also maintaining a family life.3
Anna Jones' experiences and achievements make her a valuable addition to the board of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club as a Non-Executive Director, bringing a wealth of leadership experience and a track record of breaking gender barriers in high-profile industries.
Highlights
I’ve gone from a CEO to a Founder and back to CEO.
The most powerful lesson I’ve learnt:
Combine a scrappy, start-up approach with a structured corporate approach.
What this means in practice:
1/ Encouraging every employee to think like an entrepreneur - “if you were trying to disrupt our industry what would you do?”.
2/ A lack of available resources (and time) can be an advantage for maximising efficiency.
3/ Be careful of having too much unnecessary flab. Resource-heavy and complex doesn’t always mean better.
4/ Never let complacency set in, build a culture based on innovation and constant improvement “how can we do it better today?”.
There are many lessons I’ve learnt from both the corporate and the entrepreneurial world and I’m enjoying combining them both.
Confession: I’ve written a business book but don’t read many 😅
After reading them nonstop as a student I moved to novels and I’ve never really moved back.
One business book that stayed with me is “Freakonomics” by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
I read it many moons ago but I’ll never forget its key messages.
1/ Question your assumptions and biases.
2/ Go one level deeper than everyone else.
3/ Apply first principles thinking.
4/ Analyse if the data backs up what you think.
5/ Use the power of storytelling to drive your point home.
6/ Be careful to not use just the data points that suit your argument.
Maybe it’s time to get back to business books.
What’s your favourite business book? I’d love some recommendations.
