Out & About: North Yorkshire farmer's daughter on nurturing female talent and championing women in business

FARMER’s daughter Anna Jones was just 37 when she was appointed the first female CEO of Hearst, publishers of Cosmopolitan, Elle, Red, Good Housekeeping and Country Living.

Despite overwhelmingly female readerships, the world of monthly glossies is still, ironically, a male-dominated industry and it was a meteoric rise to the top by anyone’s standards.

But Anna’s mould-breaking success will have come as little surprise to those who knew her, not least her friends and family in rural North Yorkshire, where her strong feminist credentials were nurtured by her parents from a young age.

Her Danish art teacher mother Birgitte fell out with the headmaster at the local primary school because Anna and her three sisters were not allowed to wear trousers. So they moved to another school where they could. “She was very focused on equality,” says Anna.

And her Yorkshire-born pig and arable farmer father John proved to be as dedicated a feminist as his wife: “People used to say ‘You poor man, next time it might be a boy’. He has become a real feminist because he has four girls. We were taught from an early age that women were equal to men and there was nothing we couldn’t do.”

Anna certainly lived up to expectations. She became used to being the solitary female in a roomful of men at magazine industry gatherings, but determined to use her role to help other women achieve more.

Earlier this year she left the top job at Hearst - one of the largest magazine publishers in the world - after five years in the role, to set up a new funding platform and support network for women in business.

Along with Sheffield-born entrepreneur Debbie Wosskow, Anna has established the AllBright Academy, an accelerator programme for women who want to set up their own companies, and are already knocking on doors to raise money to help get such businesses off the ground.

They are also launching AllBright, social members’ clubs with co-working spaces for women only, in London and Manchester, which will combine female networking power with an inspirational working environment.

The eldest of four girls, Anna, who describes herself as a ‘northern grafter’, was born in Harrogate and grew up on the farm in Bulmer, near Castle Howard. But as the business proved difficult, her parents moved on to do other things, including running an apple juice business and a care agency. Their entrepreneurial spirit has rubbed off.

Anna first learned the value of money aged 13, when she got a Saturday job working for a country outfitters in York and, after toying with doing a degree in fashion, she studied international business management at Newcastle University. “I wasn’t a true creative, but was very interested in marketing, how to create a brand and reach people with something that matters to them,” she explains.

Her first job in public relations gave her a taste for the media. “I loved magazines,” she says. She ended up working in marketing at Hearst before being drafted in to transform the ailing digital team, eventually going on to turn around the fortunes of one of the company’s flagship brands, Cosmopolitan.

As CEO at Hearst, which reaches one third of British women, Anna launched the Empowering Women project, establishing a digital hub and hosting live events which aimed to shine a light on areas where women were shockingly under-represented.

She found herself standing on stages, over and over again, debating why women were not getting up the corporate ladder: “I was on a panel with Debbie, and we said ‘People keep discussing these issues, but no-one’s actually making positive changes and doing anything about it’.”

Despite all the talking, last year, less than ten per cent of capital was invested in female-run companies in the UK. “We met for breakfast and asked what we could do. Both of us are very driven and hard-working, and when we see something can be done, we need to get on with it and make it happen,” says Anna.

They came up with the idea for Allbright by scribbling it out on napkins in restaurants.

“We wanted to set up an academy to help women leaders cope with the challenges they face every day, along with a physical space, where working women could get together. You learn faster in a group, where you can network and grow. Great things happen when women get together in a room. It can be really powerful.”

The first club, in a five-storey former art gallery in Bloomsbury, complete with an events space, café, bar, lounges, work spaces and meeting rooms, as well as health, fitness and beauty stations, opens in February. “Everything from the music to art on the walls and hand-wash in the bathrooms is made by women. It’s a showcase.”

They hoped for 300 founder members when they opened applications at the beginning of October. “On that first day, 1,000 people signed up,” says Anna, who is now looking for a second site in London, in addition to their Manchester venue. “We think it could work anywhere.”

So far, membership reflects a keen cross-section of ages and professions. “We have creatives, consultants, fashion designers, actors, CEOs, lawyers and women working in public relations and finance,” says Anna. “It’s all in the mix.”

For Anna, 42, who has two children, Isabella, eight, and Alexander, four, a good ‘life blend’ is crucial to her success. “I work flexibly so I can take the kids to school and finish Friday lunchtime to pick them up,” she says.

An early riser, she also works at night when her children are asleep: “People complain about technology, but I think it’s a gift. You can pick things up when it’s convenient to you and it means I can take the kids away in the school holidays.”

Husband, Marcus, who runs a high-end furniture business, is hugely supportive. “We both understand what it is like to run a business,” she says.

Her parents now live in Northumberland, but Anna loves returning to North Yorkshire when she gets the chance. “I brought my kids back to the farm recently as I wanted to show them where I grew up. I took them to Whitby and Scarborough and the Dales. They loved it,” she says. “Growing up in the middle of nowhere, in such an idyllic rural setting was a certainly big influence on me.”

• W:http://theallbright.com

Anna’s top tips for women in business

1. Do something you are passionate about. It is very important to love what you do and think about what motivates you

2. Plan well

3. Ask yourself: “Why you, Why now, Why this?”

4. Know your numbers

5. Find your tribe. Spend time with people you can learn from and be inspired by