Antonia Swinson
A Biography
Antonia Swinson is CEO Designate of Speakers Trust (www.speakerstrust.org), the UK’s leading Public Speaking Training Organisation working in education and in partnership with the not-for-profit sector. For over five years prior to this, she was Chief Executive of Social Enterprise Scotland – the national collective voice of Scotland's dynamic social enterprise movement and currently sits on the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust‘s Power & Responsibility Committee.
Before moving to the voluntary sector, Antonia enjoyed a successful career as an award winning business journalist contributing to London and Scottish nationals. For six years, she wrote the popular weekly Passing Comment column in the business section of Scotland on Sunday and has written five published books: three novels and two non-fiction works, including her acclaimed 2003 polemic Root of all Evil? How To Make Spiritual Values Count, which predicted the current global economic situation and established a new role as a policy adviser. Most recently, Antonia has contributed an extended introduction to the new edition of her late father Arthur Swinson’s 1963 classic ‘Scotch on the Rocks’, the true story of the Whisky Galore boat, the SS Politician. An active campaigner for writers and good writing, in 2004 Antonia took on the role of Honorary Secretary of the Edinburgh Book Fringe launched to champion new Scottish writing and for three years was Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland, sitting on the Society of Authors UK Committee under the chairmanship of Anthony Beevor.
In addition to business writing, Antonia has been the Daily Express TV critic writing the daily Last Night’s View column and created the popular weekly Allotment Tales gardening column in The Scotsman Magazine. She has also written extensively on financial and policy issues for magazines as diverse as the New Statesman, Life & Work and Regeneration & Renewal. TV appearances include Channel 4 'Dosh'; BBC 4 ‘Games Britannia’, plus broadcasts on Radio 4 Today Programme’s ‘Thought for the Day’ and BBC Radio Scotland.
Other career highlights include launching the South West London Programme for the international leadership organisation Common Purpose and an early short acting career, which informed Antonia’s love of public speaking - including successful runs at the Kings Theatre Edinburgh, Glasgow Pavilion and Fortune Theatre London plus appearances in STV’s High Road and Thames TV’s ‘Chance in a Million’ with Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn.
Antonia is an honours graduate of the University of Edinburgh, married with two children.
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