Julia Hobsbawm OBE (born 15 August 1964) is a British writer and public speaker.

Hobsbawm at the Financial Times 125th Anniversary Party, London, in June 2013

Early life edit

She is the daughter of historian Eric Hobsbawm and music teacher Marlene Schwarz,[1] and attended Camden School for Girls.

In the early 1980s, she studied French and Italian at the Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster), leaving without qualifications after failing to transfer to Media Studies. She worked in publishing, and then as a researcher in television, including on Wogan,[2] before moving to political fundraising for the Labour Party before the 1992 General Election.

Career edit

In 1993, Hobsbawm founded the public relations firm Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications with her friend Sarah Brown.[3]

She has held Honorary Visiting Professorships at the University of the Arts, London, and more recently at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass Business School), including a roles as Honorary Visiting Professor of Networking in 2012[4] and Honorary Visiting Professor in Workplace Social Health until 2020.[5] Since September 2022 she writes the "Working Assumptions" column for Bloomberg News' section on work, Work Shift, having formerly been an editor-at-large for wellbeing portal Thrive, and a columnist for Strategy+Business magazine.[citation needed]

She began hosting The Nowhere Office podcast with Stefan Stern in March 2021.[6]

Hobsbawm was appointed an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2015 for services to business.[7]

She is a patron of the Facial Surgery Research Foundation and the Zoe Sarojini Trust, a charity educating girls in South Africa and was a founding trustee in the UK of OurBrainBank.[citation needed]

Books edit

  • WORKING ASSUMPTIONS: What We Thought We Knew About Work Before Covid and Generational AI - and What We Know Now" - White Fox Publishing with Fully Connected (2024)
  • The Nowhere Office, Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future, Basic Books/John Murray (UK) and Public Affairs (US) (2022)
  • The Simplicity Principle, Six Steps Towards Clarity in a Complex World, Kogan Page (2020)
  • Fully Connected: Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Overload, Bloomsbury (2017)
  • The See-Saw: 100 Ideas for Work-Life Balance, Atlantic Books (2009)
  • Where the Truth Lies: Trust and Morality in the Business of PR, Journalism and Communications, Atlantic Books (2006)

References edit

  1. ^ Franks, Lynne (9 February 2012). "Interview: Julia Hobsbawm". The Jewish Chronicle.
  2. ^ "My Life in Media: Julia Hobsbawm". The Independent. 3 April 2005.
  3. ^ Boggan, Steve (29 June 1997). "Face that fits for the man with a head for figures". The Independent. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  4. ^ Guttenplan, D. D. (1 July 2012). "Networking in the Groves of Academe". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  5. ^ "Cass appoints Julia Hobsbawm as its first Honorary Visiting Professor of Workplace Social Health". Bayes Business School. 19 March 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  6. ^ "The Nowhere Office on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. 16 January 2024.
  7. ^ "Birthday Honours 2015: the Prime Minister's list: CSV - GOV.UK". assets.publishing.service.gov.uk.

External links edit