People

Katie Aspinall

Born in Yorkshire, Aspinall spent her childhood in Athens, Caracas and Nairobi as her father was working for the British Council, a government-funded but independent organization which promotes the understanding of British culture.

She attended British schools in various cities before being sent to boarding school in England. She was good at languages and won a place to study Spanish and Portuguese at Kings College of the University of London. In order to earn some extra money she had a Saturday job with The General Trading Company, a store in Sloane Square and she concluded that she wanted to work in retail after graduation. She changed her mind when she was offered the job as a press officer with the company. She quit college and for 18 months did that job. The urge to travel interrupted her career and she set off to tour the world, spending 18 months in the US, New Zealand and Australia, including three months during which she worked on a pearl diving ship off Australia's rugged northwest coast. When she returned to London she found a job at the Raffles nightclub on London's King's Road, running the membership department and planning private parties. She then moved on to a job with the exclusive china and glass store Thomas Goode in London's Mayfair, working on special commissions and corporate contracts, including the royal accounts.

After two and a half years she was made redundant and the same week an old friend asked her to help out with the Tyrrell motor home. It sounded different and so Katie went along to see what it was like. She stayed and at the end of 1996 Tyrrell asked her if she would join the Marketing Department, concentrating on making sure that the team's sponsors were well looked after. When Tyrrell closed down she moved with most of the staff to Honda Racing Developments but when that project was canceled by Honda Aspinall dropped out of F1. She returned in 2000 with the Williams team.