Each week we shine the spotlight on a member of Dorset’s business community and ask him, or her, for answers to our part fun/part serious questionnaire. This time…

Her favourite smell is freshly laundered and aired sheets just off the clothes line; she considers making a difference to be the best bit of her job; chooses Wonder Woman as her childhood heroine and says the best thing about living in Dorset is the fresh air, beach, sea and ice cream.

Dawn Rondeau, Chief Operations Officer, Weymouth BID – known as We are Weymouth – and Managing Director of D52 Business Toolkit, occupies the 20 Questions’ hot seat.

Question: What is your favourite TV show?

Answer: Currently I’m enjoying Netflix series ‘The Good Place’ a thought-provoking comedy based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, which is broadly speaking based on the general belief that we deem “Heaven belongs to us and our type, and Hell is for other people.” If you haven’t watched it, I would recommend it. Otherwise, I’m a nostalgic and love 80’s sitcoms such a Fawlty Towers and Are You Being Served?.

Q: Who would you like to share a car with?

A: Well I’m greedy, so I’d want a FULL car; politicians, comedians, entrepreneurs, singers and Nobel Prize winners. I’m renowned for creating dynamic collaborations, initiating difficult conversations and mobilising change but if I could only have one it would be Albert Einstein, I’d ask how he kept going when he was told he wouldn’t amount to much as a child. What motivated him to maintain his passion and conviction even when no one was listening.

Q: The best bit of my job is…?

A: Making a difference, whether changing lives, improving businesses and – in my role at Weymouth BID – making a difference by improving and promoting the town for visitors, locals and the business community.

Q: And the worst…?

A: Juggling the varying demands in order to be, and do, the very best I can.

Q: Who was your childhood hero?

A: I’m going for a fictional hero: Wonder Woman, of course. A compassionate, caring, strong, opinionated, highly competitive, outgoing woman who tries to avoid conflict but if pressed will engage in battle and on occasion lose herself in the cause. As I write this I realise it made more of an impression on me than I realised.

Q: What’s your favourite smell?

A: Freshly laundered and aired sheets just off the clothes line.

Q: Where’s your favourite place in Dorset?

A: The beach and sea anywhere but I love it in Weymouth, so mostly Bowleaze and Smallmouth. On a sentimental note my parents’ place in Burton Bradstock filled with precious memories.

Q: What advice would you give to anyone starting out on a career?

A: Never regret the things you did, only the things you didn’t, so embrace new challenges, grasp them as an opportunity for self-development and betterment. Work hard, knowing your worth – we all have to start at the bottom and prove ourselves but realise when you’re worth more.

Q: What was your first record/CD?

A: Brown Girl in the Ring by Boney M, with the flip side: Rivers of Babylon. Srill classics in my book.

Q: What gets you angry?

A: Injustice, rudeness and people not being true to their word. My mother has always said, treat everyone the way you’d want to be treated, I try to do this. Her other wisdom included saying “There is no excuse for lack of manners or lack of cleanliness, everyone has access to a bar of soap and the ability to mean what they say and be polite saying Please, Thank you and Sorry to others.” I live by these mantras.

Q: Do you have a favourite piece of music?

A: So many, Denis King’s Black Beauty (‘Galloping Home’), much of the music of the 1980’s but currently it has to be War of the Worlds having just been to London and taken part in the immersive experience. It’s always been a classic but that has brought it to life for me.

Q: What are the qualities you look for in a new employee?

A: Flexibility, ability to show initiative, hard-working and honest.

Q: What’s your favourite food or dish?

A: Fish particularly ‘fruit de mer’ but I just love moules marinere, crab and avocado, langoustine, Indian prawn puree.

Q: Steamed sponge pudding and custard or a plate of melon?

A: Plate of melon.

Q: Name the best thing about living/working in Dorset?

A: The fresh air, the beach, the sea the ice cream, it’s work but it’s like being on holiday.

Q: If you were Prime Minister for the day what would be the first thing you do?

A: I would tackle the relentless tax avoidance schemes and provide direct grants from this revenue for small businesses who have been affected by the pandemic, particularly tourism, leisure and small independent retailers. Online larger corporation revenues have soared under the pandemic while our high streets struggle, yet it continues to shift its profits to tax havens like Luxembourg to avoid paying its fair share of tax. These big digital companies all rely on our public services, our infrastructure, and our educated and healthy workforce. But unlike smaller businesses and hard-working taxpayers, the tech giants fail to pay fairly into the common pot for the common good. So I’d get my teeth into this and not care about whom I upset in the process, for in my book we need to right the balance of injustice in business and create a fairer playing field.

Q: What’s your biggest frustration?

A: Needing more time in the day for recreation; reading, swimming and sunbathing.

Q:  Where’s your favourite holiday location?

A: I don’t think it’s where I go it’s whom I’m with. Anywhere can be heaven on earth if spent with the right people.

Q: Where do you see yourself in ten years’ time?

A: Retired with a bit of consultancy work.

Q: What would you like to be remembered for?

A: Making a difference.