Carole Stone
Carole Stone (born 30 May 1942), CBE, is a British author and freelance radio and television broadcaster. She spent 27 years at the BBC starting as a newsroom secretary and eventually becoming producer of Radio 4's flagship discussion show Any Questions? for ten years until 1990. She is married to television journalist Richard Lindley. She is the second wife of Richard Lindley who has several children by his first marriage, one of whom committed suicide.
Carole was appointed a CBE in June 2015 for her services to market research and charities.[1]
Since leaving the BBC, Carole has worked as a freelance journalist and broadcaster and as a self-employed media consultant to chairmen and chief executives of major British companies. With more than 40,000 names in her electronic address book she’s been called ‘London’s networking queen’.
She is the author of "Networking: The Art of Making Friends" (ISBN 0-09-185711-2) and "The Ultimate Guide to Successful Networking" (ISBN 0-09-190025-5).
Carole is a Senior Fellow at Regent's University in London.[2]
She is an elected governor of the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust; patron of two mental health charities, SANE and Triumph over Phobia; a patron of the Facial Surgery Research Foundation, Saving Faces; a partner in the debating forum Intelligence Squared; a Counsellor for One Young World and a member of the Appeals Committee for Combat Stress, The Enemy Within.
In April 2007 Carole became Managing Director of YouGovStone Ltd, a joint venture with the online market research agency YouGov plc, where she established the YouGovStone ThinkTank – a global panel of over 4,000 people who are leaders in their field – the ‘influentials’. YouGovStone carries out opinion research surveys both online and face-to-face. Carole sold the company to YouGov in June 2011 and is now its Executive Chairman.
Known for holding an annual get-together for her network of 'friends' in addition to a weekly 'salon' at her home in Covent Garden, in May 2009 Carole formed TheStoneClub – a private members club, part social, part business, where members meet to discuss social issues that concern us all - what she calls a ‘meeting of minds’.
In November 2011 Carole was awarded Best-Connected Woman in British Business by the Institute of Directors and O2.
In 2012, YouGovStone became a wholly owned and fully integrated part of YouGov plc. To reflect this change the team now operates as YouGov Reputation, continuing to produce research with opinion leaders around the world.