Helen Whately is a businesswoman and shadow ministerial advisor with experience in Health and Education.
Aged 30, she has had a successful career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and AOL, the internet company. At PwC she trained as a management accountant and specialised in Media/ Telecoms, working around the UK and Europe. At AOL, Helen’s deals helped thousands of people get internet access and she launched Britain’s first legal internet film service.
As well as being involved in local politics Helen is influential in Westminster, advising the Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on Media and Telecoms policy and contributing to David Cameron’s Quality of Life Policy Group.
Helen grew up in Surrey, where her father is a surgeon and her mother a doctor. During her childhood, debates about the NHS were a regular feature of family conversations. Her own experiences of the NHS, particularly working in a Surrey hospital, convinced her that she should become an MP rather than a doctor.
She went to Micklefield School in Reigate, Woldingham School and Westminster School for sixth form. After A-levels she spent a year teaching in a village school in Nepal. In 1995 she went to Oxford University where she read PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) and met Marcus, now her husband. They married in St Nicholas Church, Charlwood in 2005.
Her experience teaching in Nepal was the beginning of an enduring interest in education: she is a school governor and teaches public speaking in London Secondary Schools.
Helen has also been a committed horse rider. She competed for Surrey in national competitions, was a member of the British Junior Eventing Squad and has two half-blues from captaining the Oxford University Riding Team. She still rides when she finds time, skis in winter, rollerblades in summer and relaxes with a good book or in the cinema.
For more information about Helen and the work she is doing in Kingston and Surbiton please visit her personal website: |
|
