Sheila O
On Air Personality: Fridays 5pm-7pm/Saturdays 8am-10am (EST)
Sheila Okonji-Ashinze has established herself as international
businesswoman who is well respected for her contributions within the
entertainment industry worldwide.
Whilst at the University of Westminster in London, Sheila joined the first ever
MOBO Awards, now the largest premier showcase for urban music watched
by millions of people worldwide. This was to be a life-changing decision. She
went on to graduate from the university with a BA in Marketing and Public
Relations.
As she continued to help build and secure the future for the MOBO Awards,
Sheila took on a new challenge. While working on various projects at the
MOBO Awards, Sheila was constantly complimented on her speaking voice
and tone. She was later asked to join Town FM a community Radio station in
London’s Edmonton. She co presented a Saturday night show with a
colleague and the duo worked so hard to increase a huge fan base. Town FM
was Sheila’s first experience as a radio presenter. She worked as part of the
team working hard to get Town FM an FM licence by working with them and
promoting road shows amongst many marketing campaigns. In 2000, Sheila
founded ZONS P.R UK Ltd, a company focusing on PR, Marketing, Media
Advertising and Events Management.
The following year, she founded the international artiste booking agency,
ZONS TOURS, which opened a niche in Africa where international A-list
artistes are taken to tour the continent in conjunction with Nigerian Breweries
PLC and many other corporate blue chip companies. A previously untapped
market, Africa became the host to a series of high profile concerts, despite the
doubts of many around her, Sheila quickly became convinced she had made
the right move and continued to tour a long list of other international stars,
including R. Kelly, Jay Z, Beyonce, Kanye West, Nas, Mariah Carey, Busta
Rhymes, Nelly, Ludacris, Rick Ross, Chris Brown, Wyclef Jean, Akon, Joe,
Usher, Sean Paul, 50 Cent, Nicki Minaj, Dionne Warwick, and many many
more.
The great success of these bookings has led ZONS TOURS to look into more
possibilities and opportunities for African artist. Zons as an umbrella company
has played a major role with many music collaborations between American
and UK artistes and African artistes. The success of these bookings also led
to Zons sponsoring and creating the first ever African act category for the
MOBO Awards. Zons (AUMG) long before any other Awards company
created this category.
*AUMG (an arm of Zons created to support African talents).