Cally Beaton

Speaker, broadcaster and stand-up comedian

Cally Beaton is a media executive, entrepreneur and performer. At the start of her career she headed an independent television production company that was bought by ITV. She joined the board of the UK’s main commercial broadcaster as both the youngest and the only woman member (and for a while sat alongside David Cameron). She left ITV to start a creative consultancy and production company as well as joining Viacom as Senior Vice President of International Sales.

At Viacom, Cally oversaw a £500million budget for channels including Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount and including programmes from South Park to Friends, Russell Howard’s Good News to SpongeBob SquarePants. Responsible for selling programmes and formats around the world she combined working with on-screen and production talent with business planning and strategy, bridging the divide between creative and financial priorities.

It was while working for Comedy Central, on the road with the late, great Joan Rivers, that Cally was nudged into the sphere of performance. Acting as an unofficial business event warm-up for Ms. Rivers, it was she who told Cally she had what it took to be a stand-up and so, as a 45 year old single parent, Cally first took to the stage. She quickly cemented her position as one of the most exciting and distinctive new stand-ups in the country, with her unflinching, acerbic and intelligent brand of comedy. She has appeared on BBC2’s QI multiple times and as a guest on Radio 4’s Museum Of Curiosity, as well as BBC Radio 6 Music, Times Radio, Radio 5 Live and as a regular contributor on BBC London. Cally has also appeared as an expert on BBC2's The Apprentice You're Fired, as well as a panelist on Radio 4's The Unbelievable Truth with David Mitchell and BBC's The Blame Game. Cally has also written for The Guardian and the Financial Times.

A walking, talking advocate for reinvention, and doing “one thing every day that scares you”, a consistent thread in Cally’s professional life has been working towards a gender-neutral world. Cally works as a mentor and champion of gender equality across a range of industries. Bringing humour and energy to her business insight, Cally considers the nature of the workplace and leadership culture. She looks at how to engender change (both personal and organisational), inspire teams and develop a positive, agile and inclusive environment. She also tackles the working priorities and expectations of the so-called millennial generation, and reveals how to be creative whilst keeping an eye on the bottom line.

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