I am Man­aging Dir­ector and Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Media at the World Eco­nomic Forum. The Forum is an inde­pend­ent, inter­na­tional organ­iz­a­tion incor­por­ated as a not-for-profit found­a­tion in Geneva, Switzer­land. This is my per­sonal blog and web­site so the usual caveats apply.

My career was mainly in tele­vi­sion journ­al­ism, but I’ve also been an author and aca­demic. From June 2005, I was head of — Britain’s only Gradu­ate School of Journ­al­ism at City Uni­ver­sity Lon­don, and I’m still a pro­fessor there.

TV journ­al­ism

My broad­cast news adven­ture star­ted with a sum­mer intern­ship at CBS News back in 1987. A year later and they star­ted pay­ing me. I spent four of the most excit­ing years in inter­na­tional news with CBS: the con­clu­sion of the Lebanese host­age crisis and the Iran-Iraq War; free­dom for Nel­son Man­dela; the col­lapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Ber­lin Wall; the first Gulf War.

In 1993, I joined ITN’s News At Ten which took me from Bel­fast to Bos­nia, and to many places besides. Three years later, I joined the launch team for Five News. Adrian Monck

Five went on air in 1997, with the Brit­ish gen­eral elec­tion that ended the post-Thatcher era and brought Tony Blair to power. We repor­ted the death of Diana, Prin­cess of Wales, and every story from Kosovo to 9/11 and sub­sequent wars in Afgh­anistan and Iraq. Report­ers trav­elled light, but they filed with dis­tinc­tion from every con­tin­ent. Adrian Monck

I also turned ana­logue news­rooms digital, pion­eered low-cost news pro­duc­tion, and did an MBA at Lon­don Busi­ness School. Adrian Monck

At Five, I was lucky enough to spend a few years sit­ting along­side one of the world’s finest broad­casters - Kirsty Young - and a bunch of very cre­at­ive, youth­ful (well they were then) and tal­en­ted people which — as all journ­al­ists know — “beats work­ing for a liv­ing.” Adrian Monck

Along the way, things I did at Five, at Dun­blane, and in Bos­nia picked up Royal Tele­vi­sion Soci­ety awards. A report on aid to Rwanda won gold at the New York Fest­ivals and over­all Fest­ival prize. Adrian Monck

Before join­ing City Uni­ver­sity Lon­don, I had a brief, but enjoy­able, spell at Sky News. The Brit­ish gen­eral elec­tion of May 2005 — Tony Blair’s last — also happened to be my farewell to tele­vi­sion news. Adrian Monck

Writ­ing and commentary

My most recent book — writ­ten with Mike Han­ley — is Can You Trust The Media? (Icon, 2008). The Fin­an­cial Times called it “jaunty.” BBC Radio 5 Live called it “fant­astic.” Andrew Gil­ligan called it “nihil­istic.” The Observer said it was “start­lingly cyn­ical.” Adrian Monck

The Guard­ian called it “amus­ingly blunt” and its pre­scrip­tions “excel­lent”, and reviewer Peter Pre­ston said Gor­don Brown “ought to sit up and take notice.” (He didn’t — the rest is his­tory.) Adrian Monck

Mike and I also co-authored Crunch Time: How Every­day Life Is Killing The Future (Icon, 2007) which the Sydney Morn­ing Her­ald (Mike’s an Aus­sie) called “warm, witty and inspir­ing.” Adrian Monck

As an aca­demic I have blogged about the media here at adrianmonck.com. I’ve writ­ten for the Guard­ian, New States­man, Even­ing Stand­ard, Scots­man and Press Gaz­ette, and been quoted every­where from the New York Times to Asharq al-Awsat. Adrian Monck

Con­sultancy

I have under­taken con­sultancy on com­mu­nic­a­tions in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I’ve worked with CEOs at FTSE top 20 com­pan­ies, with gov­ern­ment min­is­ters and civil ser­vants, and lead­ing inter­na­tional news organ­iz­a­tions. Adrian Monck

I’ve addressed audi­ences in Sydney, New York, Lon­don, Oxford and Cam­bridge — and many other places, includ­ing Britain’s Defence Academy. In 2005–6, I was Pres­id­ent of the Media Soci­ety, and presen­ted David Dimbleby with the society’s annual award. Adrian Monck

In 2008, the World Eco­nomic Forum invited me to join their Global Agenda Coun­cil on the Future of Media, and I atten­ded the inaug­ural sum­mit in the United Arab Emir­ates. Adrian Monck

The new School of Com­mu­nic­a­tions at Madrid’s IE asked me to be a vis­it­ing scholar, and I’m the external assessor at the Uni­ver­sity of Hong Kong’s J-School. Adrian Monck

I have chaired prize jur­ies and judged — amongst oth­ers, the Brit­ish Press Awards, the Inter­na­tional Emmy Awards, the BAFTAs, Royal Tele­vi­sion Soci­ety, Broad­cast and many more. Adrian Monck

I’m a mem­ber of BAFTA, the RTS, the Media Soci­ety and the Royal Soci­ety of Arts. Adrian Monck

I read Mod­ern His­tory at Exeter Col­lege, Oxford (2:1, if you must know). I edited the university’s news­pa­per, Cher­well, and was JCR President.

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