Richard Sambrook

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Biographical Details

"Richard Sambrook is Professor of Journalism and Director of the Centre for Journalism at Cardiff University. For thirty years he was a journalist at the BBC working as a producer and editor on many national radio and TV news programmes and on location in China, the Middle East, Russia, Europe and the USA. He was on the management board of the BBC for ten years first as Director of Sport, then Director of News and finally Director of Global News and the World Service during which time he oversaw the launch of a number of news channels and websites. Following the BBC he worked for two years as Global Vice Chairman and Chief Content Officer for Edelman, the world's largest PR firm, advising clients around the world on digital content strategies and on crisis management. He frequently writes and speaks on the future of media and journalism, and on crisis management."

"Richard Sambrook is Vice Chairman and Chief Content Officer of the Edelman public relations agency. For 30 years, until February 2010, he was a BBC journalist and news executive...

"Sambrook was educated at Maidstone Technical High School, at the University of Reading (BA in English) and at Birkbeck College, University of London (MSc in politics). His career began in local newspapers in South Wales. He joined BBC Radio News as a sub-editor in 1980.

"His time at the BBC was almost entirely in daily news. He was a programme editor, news editor and, later, Head of Newsgathering when the Corporation won a number of awards for its international news coverage. He merged radio and television news, and domestic and World Service newsgathering during this time, resulting in the world's largest broadcast news operation. He was acting Director of Sport in 2000, and became Director of News in 2001. Sambrook became Director of the World Service and Global News in September 2004. He oversaw major restructuring of the World Service, and its opening of Arabic and Persian television, as well as commercial interactive services.

"Since January 2010 he has been a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. From 2006-2009 he was Vice President of the European Broadcasting Union and represented public broadcasters on the advisory group to the UN's Internet Governance Forum . He was a member of the leadership committee of the Global Media AIDS Initiative, established by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2004. He was Chairman of the BBC's international charity, the World Service Trust, and Chairman of the Arts and Business Advisory Council.

"He was on the advisory board of the British Council, the executive committee of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and the board of the Fritz Institute. He led an inquiry for the International News Safety Institute into the deaths of journalists around the world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and of the Royal Society of Arts."

• Trustee, WWF UK
• Trustee, ARTICLE 19
• Counsellor, One Young World