Speakers

Mark Thompson

Co-chair, International Fund for Public Interest Media

Mark is co-chair of the newly established IFPIM, through which he and fellow co-chair Maria Ressa, the Philippines journalist and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner, will oversee campaigns to preserve independent journalism around the world.

Since stepping down as President & CEO of the New York Times Company in the summer of 2020, Mark has also become Chairman of Ancestry, the global genealogy company.

His eight-year tenure at the NYT saw the fabled newspaper transform from declining print brand into a digital powerhouse. That role had followed a similar length of time spent overseeing revolutionary change at the BBC, where as Director-General he was widely credited with expanding the corporation’s digital reach and overseeing development of the BBC iPlayer. He joined the BBC from Channel 4 where he was Chief Executive from 2002 to 2004.

Before Channel 4 he held a series of senior posts at the BBC including Director of Television. His BBC career began as production trainee. He went on to edit several news programmes, including the Nine O’Clock News and Panorama before becoming Controller of BBC Two.