Journalism Advisory Board
Our Journalism Advisory Board provides the OICP with advice and support from leading journalism professionals
Jon Snow
After anchoring Channel 4 News since 1989, Jon stepped down in 2021 to form Snowball Productions. He now develops and produce podcasts, current affairs features and documentaries. Jon began his career at ITN in 1976 reporting from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. He is a five-time winner of the Royal Television Society’s Presenter of the Year award, and was also honoured with BAFTA awards in 2005 and 2015, and a BAFTA Fellowship in 2015. Jon has served on the Board of Britain’s National Gallery, the Tate, and for 30 years was Chairman of the New Horizon Youth Centre.
Isabel Berwick
Work and Careers editor, Financial Times
Work and Careers Editor at the Financial Times, isabel oversees the FT’s coverage of workplace issues including the future of work, and she has a particular interest in workplace diversity and inclusion. Isabel started as a graduate trainee at Haymarket medical publishing, and went on to write for women’s magazines before becoming personal finance editor and later business editor at the Independent on Sunday. She joined the FT in 1999 and has since held senior writing, editing and commissioning roles in personal finance, FT Weekend and on the daily opinion pages. She became the paper’s Work and Careers Editor in 2018.
Michael Binyon
Freelance journalist, The Times
Michael Binyon has been an editorial writer, columnist and foreign correspondent for The Times since 1971. For 15 years he was based overseas, reporting for the paper from Moscow, Washington, Bonn and Brussels before returning to London to be diplomatic editor in 1991 and then becoming the chief foreign editorial writer in 2000. He speaks French, German, Russian and some Arabic and is a frequent broadcaster on BBC radio and television and Sky, and also appears regularly on French, German, Russian and Middle Eastern radio and television as well as Monocle24 radio. A winner of two British journalism awards, he wrote Life in Russia in 1983 and was awarded an OBE in 2000.
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff
Journalist, editor, features writer, columnist and creative with focuses on race, lifestyle, travel, media, youth culture and social politics, Charlie is the Managing Editor at Skin Deep, a columnist at Stylist magazine, and a Journalism Fellow at the Reuters Institute. Charlie is also the Co-Editor of Black Joy (Penguin), and Editor of Mother Country: Real Stories of the Windrush Children (Hachette), a leading new exploration of the Windrush generation. Formerly, Charlie was a Senior Staff Editor at the NY Times, the Head of Editorial at gal-dem, and a writer and former Editor at Dazed. She is also winner of the 2017 Georgina Henry Award for Innovation in Journalism.
Jem Collins
Laura Garcia
Laura is a multimedia journalist at BBC Mundo, the Spanish language service of the BBC as part of their video team. Her career began in Laura’s home town of Mexico as a newspaper photographer covering the “lucha libre”. Laura worked for newspapers and film production companies in the US before moving to the UK in September 2011. She has worked in different national newsrooms across the UK as a TV and radio producer. Recently she worked with First Draft teaching journos to spot and verify disinformation. She taught a course on social media for the UN-mandated University for Peace and regularly featured as a foreign correspondent on Mexican TV explaining European politics.
Hazel Healy
Hazel Healy is the UK Editor of climate investigator desmog.com. She was previously a Co-editor of the award-winning New Internationalist magazine. A writer, editor and broadcaster, she specialises in stories that unpack the thorny subjects of justice, equality and political change. Hazel co-founded local paper Manchester Mule before freelancing from Madrid for the BBC World Service, the LA Times, The Guardian and De Correspondent. In 2017, she won a Drum Online Media award for her stories of life after Ebola in Sierra Leone produced with On Our Radar.
Rupert Heseltine
Executive Chairman, Haymarket Media Group
Rupert began his media career in Australia in 1989, working for Peter Issacson Publications before returning to the UK to join Maxwell Business Communications. He joined Haymarket in 1994 and has worked across all parts of the business in a wide variety of roles launching a number of iconic brands. In 2001, he became a director of Haymarket Media Group and in 2010 was named Executive Chairman. He is an active member of the global Federation of Periodical Publishers management board.
James Hewes
James joined PRCA, the world’s largest and most influential PR professional body, as CEO in 2024. This followed six years as CEO of FIPP, re-positioning the 100-year old media trade association as a business focused on learning, knowledge sharing, skills development and networking. Hewes started his career in media at BBC Worldwide, the commercial division of the BBC, and then worked at BBC Magazines for 12 years. As Publishing Director of Dubai-based Gulf News Publishing from 2013 to 2016, he had responsibility for more than 30 product areas and launched new brands across digital, live events and print. He was then Interim CEO of The Art Newspaper from 2016-2017, whilst also running his own company, Soho Consulting.
Kim Hewitt
ITV News Meridian, Programme and Digital Editor
Kim is the current Programme and Digital Editor at ITV News Meridian, and an award-winning journalist recognised for her team’s regional coverage of major events, as well as her coverage of Operation Bullfinch, the police operation into the grooming and abuse of children in Oxford. She has worked on a number of other big stories including various Royal weddings; the Shoreham air crash; the 100thanniversary of Titanic; the Camber Sands tragedy, and the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Kim is a member of the Royal Television Society, and is an industry advisor at Oxford Brookes, working with the University and the National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Abeed Janmohamed
Abeed is a Brookes alumnus from the class of 2002 graduating with a degree in Business Management. He is a C-Level Executive & Board Member with a demonstrable history of working with start-ups and high-growth businesses. He has significant experience across publishing, AdTech, Martech and disruptive technologies such as blockchain and their application in the publishing and media industry. Away from work Abeed has played international cricket for Kenya and continues to play competitive cricket, hockey, tennis and golf alongside coaching sport.
Deborah Joseph
European Editorial Director, Glamour
As the European Editorial Director of Glamour, a leading Condé Nast brand, Deborah oversees the UK, German and Spanish market. An award-winning Editor, Deborah took over as Editor-in-Chief of Glamour UK in 2017, seeing the brand through a period of exciting digital transition. Prior to that, she spent six years working for fashion and celebrity tech start ups and was a social media consultant for fashion designer Jenny Packham. She has edited Easy Living, Brides and the Daily Mail’s Life and Style section. She is a mother of three children and three pugs.
Jeremy Leslie
Jeremy Leslie has worked as an Art Director on magazines such as Blitz and Time Out and as Creative Director at John Brown Media. He has developed a parallel career commenting on magazine creativity, with a particular interest in the new indie scene. Alongside the magCulture design studio he runs the magCulture online Journal and shop, has written several books about editorial design and organises the annual ModMag conferences in London and New York. In 2018 he was awarded the BSME’s Mark Boxer Award for services to the magazine industry.
Sara McCorquodale
Sara McCorquodale is CEO and founder of CORQ, an influencer intelligence and digital trends service used by the best known brands in the world. She is also the author of Influence, an award-winning journalistic investigation into the influencer industry published by Bloomsbury in 2019. Prior to founding her company, Sara was an editor for many publications including Tatler, HuffPost and WGSN as well as reporting for the BBC and The Guardian. She has consulted globally on digital strategy for companies such as Estee Lauder, Chanel and Net-A-Porter and continues to work for national publications and broadcasters.
David McMurtrie
David graduated from the University of Edinburgh and has spent his career working in advertising and media. He has worked for Google UK since 2007 where he is responsible for the team working with News Publishers in the UK. Previously, David was Director of International Media at MediaCom, where he worked for 10 years planning media for clients including Emirates, BP and P&G. Away from work, David enjoys travelling and trekking and is a Trustee of two charities, The Running Charity and Scotscare.
Jo Morrell
Managing Editor, The Telegraph
Jo Morrell joined The Telegraph as Managing Editor of The Telegraph in 2017. Jo was previously a Founding Director of The Pool UK, and subsequently featured in the Timewise Power 50 List. She has held Managing Director positions at both Future plc and Bauer Media, which publishes Grazia, as well as directorships at BBC Worldwide and the Haymarket Media Group. Passionate about education for the less privileged, Jo is also on the advisory board of both Founders4Schools.
Abbianca Nassar
Abbianca is a former award-winning NCTJ-qualified journalist previously working for the Evening Standard on stories including the hidden child victims of lockdown, the girls exploited into criminal gangs, the effects of period poverty on homeless children living in Zimbabwe, and community affairs. In 2020, she won the NCTJ Top Scoop award, and the Richard Lindley Bursary award at the London Press Club for her storytelling. Now, Abbianca aims to work with schools, universities and young people to help them navigate the media industry. So far she’s supported journalists into roles on the BBC apprenticeship scheme, the Sunday Times, Haringey Community Press, and the Zimbabwe Times.
Gill Oliver
Journalist and Branch Secretary, NUJ Oxford
Gill is an NCTJ-trained journalist specialising in business, tech and property. She has written for publications, organisations and brands including The Daily Mail’s This is Money, The Bureau for Investigative Journalism/Bureau Local, The Press Association, Woman magazine, Showhouse and The Oxford Times and Oxford Mail. Gill also writes for websites, blogs and clients such as UCAS, Conran Design Group, and Oxford University Hospitals Trust.
Alan Rusbridger
Alan Rusbridger was Editor in Chief of the Guardian from 1995-2015. He is currently editor of Prospect Magazine and Chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Until 2021 he was Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. During his time at the Guardian, both he and the paper won numerous awards, including the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism. He was born in Zambia, was educated at Cambridge and lives in London. He is the co-author of the BBC drama, Fields of Gold. He is a keen amateur musician and the author of Play it Again. His memoir of journalism and its future, Breaking News, was published in 2018. He is a a member of the Facebook Oversight Board. His latest book, News and How to Use it, was published in 2020.
Farrah Storr
Head of UK Writer Partnerships, Substack
Farrah Storr recently left a successful career as a magazine editor to develop the UK’s leading writers at global newsletter platform, Substack. As the award-winning Editor of Elle UK, Cosmopolitan and the launch Editor of Women’s Health — the most successful women’s magazine launch of the millennium — she has spent two decades honing her craft and has written extensively for a range of magazines and broadsheets. In 2017, Farrah was cited as one of the most powerful UK BAME leaders by The Guardian and Operation Black Vote and in 2018 won both the PPA and BSME Editor of the Year. She is part of the Social Mobility Commission.
Jim White
Sports Broadcaster, The Telegraph
Jim White was a founding member of the Independent in 1986, he then moved to the Guardian and latterly the Daily Telegraph, and The Mail on Sunday where he contributes celebrity interviews. As a broadcaster, he presented Radio 4’s Film Show and currently guests on Saturday Review and Five Live’s Fighting Talk. He also presented a sports discussion show for Scottish Television and STV’s Champions League coverage. Currently he presents the It’s Friday arts podcast for Mail+. He has written more than a dozen books, including the best selling memoir about his time coaching his son’s football team “You’ll Win Nothing With Kids”. He runs the mentoring scheme at the Football Writers Association, of which he is a board member. He lives in Oxford.