Event Information
This event is focused on hearing inspirational stories from Black woman in different sectors. We will be hosting Cynthia Ogbonna and M. Jay Gonzalez to a panel where they will be sharing their experiences of breaking barriers and give you an opportunity to ask questions too.
Cynthia Ogbonna
Cynthia is a qualified Chartered Management Accountant and Chartered Company Secretary with over 25 years of experience. She also has an MBA from Cardiff Business School and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art. She has extensive experience in managing business organizations, especially in the areas of Finance, IT, Human Resources and Corporate Administration (including pensions and corporate legal compliance).
In 2012, she became the first female in the 110 years history of Cardiff Bus to be appointed Managing Director. Cardiff Bus provides bus services to the city of Cardiff and employs around 700 people, with a fleet of over 200 buses and a turnover of £34m.
Cynthia has previously held directorship and senior management positions at automotive and general manufacturing organizations. In her current post, Cynthia is committed to making public transport more accessible, inclusive, efficient, sustainable and providing value for money.
She is passionate about keeping the city moving and about providing training and development opportunities for all employees in the work place. She is also active in promoting equality of opportunities, life-long learning, work-life balance and employee well-being.
Cynthia is married to Emmanuel, a professor at Cardiff University, and they have two daughters. She was a Governor of a local school for 12 years and she is an active member of her local church. Other interests include keep fit, yoga and listening to classical music.
M. Jay Gonzalez
M. Jay graduated first from Spelman College in Atlanta, before living in West Africa for a year. She then moved to the United Kingdom where she graduated from Cardiff University and subsequently Newport Film School. At Newport Film School, she completed Daddy’s Garden as her part of her MFA in Film.
She has, this month, won the 50-second independence short film award at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. Her winning entry, Golden, looks at the fiftieth anniversary of the country’s independence from the perspective of a boy who is not yet two years old. The award further confirms her skill when directing children, and the easy-going charm of her production style, which still embodies messages of considerable depth.
M. Jay has now completed six short films. The last two films she directed, which are due to be broadcast in late 2012, were funded via a Europe-wide competition and a competitive UK-based commissioning process respectively.
Before venturing behind the camera herself, M. Jay reviewed films for various television programmes. She's now cringing at being on the receiving end!
When M. Jay's not directing films, she's always searching for another great story to tell, whether it's factual for the newsroom or fictional for the big screen. And when she's not doing that, she's singing "Old MacDonald" repeatedly for a demanding toddler. But she promises she'll never put it in a soundtrack.