Robert Peston
Robert James Kenneth Peston (born 25 April 1960) is the BBC's Business Editor. A ‘who’s who’ report compiled for Barack Obama by US intelligence in early 2009 listed Peston amongst the UK’s most influential commentators. [1]
Contents
Biogrpahy
Peston was born on 25 April 1960, the son of the economist and Labour peer Maurice Peston. He attended Highgate Wood Comprehensive School in North London and then Balliol College, Oxford where he graduated with a degree on Politics, Philosophy and Economics in 1982. [2] After graduating he worked at the London stockbrokers Williams de Broe before moving into financial journalism. [3] He was City Editor at the Independent on Sunday from 1991 to 1992 and then joined the Financial Times where he held various posts until 2000. He was Banking Editor, 1992–93; Head of Investigations, 1993–95; Political Editor, 1995–2000; and Financial Editor and Assistant Editor in 2000.
He worked as Associate Editor at The Spectator from 2000 to 2001, and a columnist at the New Statesman and the Sunday Times from 2001 to 2002. From 2000 to 2002 he was also Editorial Director at CSQuest.com, a financial information website designed for international equity fund managers. In 2002 he joined the Sunday Telegraph as City Editor and Assistant Editor. [4]
Robert Peston took up his position as the BBC's Business Editor on 13 February 2006. [5] His predecessor Jeff Randall had been appointed the BBC's first Business Editor by Greg Dyke so as part of his mission of taking business centre stage in the BBC.’ [6]
Views
Like his predecessor Peston has argued that the BBC should try and present stories more from the perspective of business. In his submission to the BBC's Independent Panel on Impartiality of BBC Business Coverage, he argued that:
[The BBC] almost never use the long-term language of the owner. And yet most of us are owners – if we save in a pension fund – of every substantial UK listed company and many overseas businesses. What happens to Vodafone, to HSBC or to GlaxoSmithKline matters to all of us. And even if we think that the banks are ripping us off or that Tesco is unfairly crushing suppliers, the dividends they generate will sustain most of us in retirement. [7]
Affiliations
Peston is the son of the economist and Labour peer Maurice Peston. He is friends with Roland Rudd, founder of the financial PR firm Finsbury. [8]
Notes
- ↑ Hugh Muir, ‘There are people that not even a president should cross. Mel is one of them’, Guardian, 26 February 2009; p. 31
- ↑ ‘PESTON, Robert James Kenneth’, Who's Who 2010, A & C Black, 2010; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2009 ; online edn, Nov 2009 [Accessed 4 June 2010]
- ↑ Dominic White, 'Peston in line as BBC voice of business', Telegraph.co.uk, 10 December 2005.
- ↑ ‘PESTON, Robert James Kenneth’, Who's Who 2010, A & C Black, 2010; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2009 ; online edn, Nov 2009 [Accessed 4 June 2010]
- ↑ THE BBC TRUST IMPARTIALITY REVIEW BUSINESS COVERAGE, THE BBC JOURNALISM GROUP SUBMISSION TO THE PANEL, 23 JANUARY 2007; p.15.
- ↑ Michael Harrison, ‘Dyke appoints '£250,000-a-year' business editor’, Independent, 7 November 2000.
- ↑ THE BBC TRUST IMPARTIALITY REVIEW BUSINESS COVERAGE, THE BBC JOURNALISM GROUP SUBMISSION TO THE PANEL, 23 JANUARY 2007; p.26.
- ↑ Ian Burrell, 'You can bank on him: Robert Peston', The Independent, 29 September 2008
