Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur, Chief Executive and author. She was born in Texas, raised in Holland and educated at Cambridge University. She worked in BBC Radio for five years where she wrote, directed, produced and commissioned dozens of documentaries and dramas.

As a television producer, she made documentary films for Timewatch, Arena, and Newsnight.

She was one of the producers of Out of the Doll's House, the prize-winning documentary series about the history of women in the twentieth century. She designed and executive produced a thirteen part series on The French Revolution for the BBC and A&E. The series featured, among others, Alan Rickman, Alfred Molina, Janet Suzman, Simon Callow and Jim Broadbent and introduced both historian Simon Schama and playwright Peter Barnes to British television. She also produced music videos with Virgin Records and the London Chamber Orchestra to raise attention and funds for Unicef's Lebanese fund.

Leaving the BBC, she ran the trade association IPPA, which represented the interests of independent film and television producers and was once described by the Financial Times as "the most formidable lobbying organization in England."

In 1994, she returned to the United States where she worked on public affair campaigns in Massachusetts and with software companies trying to break into multimedia. She developed interactive multimedia products with Peter Lynch, Tom Peters, Standard & Poors and The Learning Company. She served as Chief Executive of InfoMation Corporation and iCast Corporation. She was named one of the Internet's Top 100 by Silicon Alley Reporter in 1999, one of the Top 25 by Streaming Media magazine and one of the Top 100 Media Executives by The Hollywood Reporter. Her "Tear Down the Wall" campaign against AOL won the 2001 Silver SABRE award for public relations.

In 2004, she published her first book, The Naked Truth: A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters (Jossey-Bass) about women's careers, choices and ambition. In February 2007, she will publish How She Does It: How Female Entrepreneurs are Changing the Rules for Business Success (Viking/Penguin). Margaret has spoken widely at corporate and industry conferences and been widely interviewed on CNN, CNNfN and CNBC as well as various American cable and radio stations. She is a frequent guest lecturer at corporations, industry conferences and business schools across the United States. She has written for Forbes, Mint, Shattered and Directors Monthly and writes regularly for Fast Company and Real Business. She sits on the board of several private companies and public institutions in the U.S. and U.K.

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