Sonia Gill

Sonia Gill is an attorney at law, development practitioner and former broadcast journalist, and media regulator.  She is also the first woman to be appointed as Secretary General of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (2014-2018 & 2021 – present).

Sonia’s tenure at the CBU has been marked by a number of achievements including: new initiatives such as introduction of the programming sharing portal CBU Media Share and enhancement of time-tested features such as the Caribbean Media Awards which have been expanded to include digital and print media.  During her tenure CBU has deepened collaboration with UNESCO, UNICEF Eastern Caribbean, PAHO and the Public Media Alliance, and established new partnerships under MOUs with the CARICOM Climate Change Centre, the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency, the Advanced Television Systems Committee and satellite company Eutelsat, among others.

Sonia was also at the helm of CBU’s mobilisation of replacement transmission equipment for radio services in Anguilla, Dominica and the Turks and Caicos, with the help of PMA, World Broadcasting Unions, CBC Canada, and the BBC after the catastrophic hits by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.

An honours graduate of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University of London (UoL), between stints in service to the CBU Sonia served as the Multi-Country Manager and Head of Programme for UNOPS in the Dutch and English Caribbean.

Prior to her return to Barbados she was the Assistant Resident Representative and Governance Advisor of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office covering Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.  There she oversaw the implementation of award-winning projects focussing on Local Governance with emphases on security and safety, as well as the role of the media in promoting transparency and anti-corruption.

After post-graduate studies in Mass Communication at UWI Mona, Sonia held the post of Assistant Executive Director, and Executive Director (Ag.) of the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica for over a decade.  There she was crucial to the development of the Children’s Code for Programming, the first comprehensive content standards policy for broadcast media in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Sonia was also a faculty member of the Caribbean School of Media and Communications (CARIMAC) at the UWI, Mona, lecturing in Media Skills as well as Media and Language.

Sonia began her career as a Reporter, Editor and Producer at the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation in Barbados, winning the Barbados Association of Journalists award for Best Radio Story in her first year at the CBC.

Sonia is a member of both the Barbados and Jamaica Bars, and for more than a decade lectured in Constitutional and Administrative Law.