Presentation is a vital part of Tina Knight’s life. Her face has been seen on the BBC’s Question Time and Breakfast News. She regularly appears as an after–dinner and meetings speaker, and once addressed 3,000 business people at the Institute of Directors’ annual conference.

Her fame on the platform preceded her in the business world. From 1985 until 2002 Tina was the owner and managing director of Nighthawk Electronics, a company considered to be a world leader in computer resource sharing devices.

She had started the company with £4,000 and took sales past £2 million in three years. She was regarded as one of the few women to be successful in computers and electronics.

In 1988 she won the Women in Business Award presented by Margaret Thatcher during her time as Prime Minister, and ten years later she received the title of UK Business Pioneer at the Global Summit of Women.

Addressing audiences became second nature and she put this experience into practice by helping to set up the Professional Speakers Association.

She sold Nighthawk Electronics in 2002 but retained a parallel company, Nighthawk Enterprises, based in Saffron Walden, Essex, covering her business training and public speaking activities. At the same time she is a director of J.I.T. International, a non–profit company providing business training for women in Third World countries.

Her charity activities embrace Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridgeshire, Feed the Children, Macmillan Cancer Relief and the Cambridge Hospice for Children.