Our People

In addition to these members of staff and regular contractors, the Bureau also works with experienced freelancers. These have recently included Tamasin Cave and Charlotte Maher. Outside the UK, the Bureau has worked freelancers including Rahul Meesaraganda, a freelance investigative reporter in India.

The Bureau has a board of directors, which meets six times a year. The directors, who act like trustees, have overall responsibility for the finances and strategy of the Bureau. It plays no part in the day-to-day editorial decisions. The board appoints the Managing Editor, who has editorial freedom to pursue investigations and research consistent with the objectives of the Bureau set out here.

Composition of the Board

The co-chairs of the board are Richard Sambrook and Isabel Hilton.

Richard is Professor of Journalism at Cardiff University. He was previously the Director of BBC News and worked at the corporation for 30 years. He is a Trustee of the World Wildlife Fund (UK) and of the International News Safety Institute for which he led an inquiry into the deaths of journalists around the world. 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 on the advisory board of the British Council and was formerly Chairman of the BBC's international charity, the World Service Trust, and a trustee of the free-speech NGO Article 19. He is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and of the Royal Society of Arts.

Isabel is a London-based writer and broadcaster. She is founder and editor of chinadialogue, an independent, non-profit organisation based in London, Beijing and San Francisco. She has reported from China, South Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe and has written and presented several documentaries for BBC radio and television. Before founding chinadialogue she was a writer and/or editor for a number of newspapers, including the Sunday Times, the Independent and the Guardian. She has authored and co-authored several books and holds honorary doctorates from Bradford and Stirling Universities.

The other directors, listed in alphabetical order, are:

Tara Lajumoke heads up the consulting arm of the FT, which supports global organisations to build sustainable digital businesses. Her leadership of FT Strategies follows 15 years at McKinsey where she specialised in digital transformation. She brings a strong background in digital skills and strategy.

James Lee, former chief executive of Pearson Longman and a main board director of its parent company Pearson plc. James is the co-founder of Goldcrest Film and TV and a former director of Yorkshire Television and the Film Council. He has advised or served on the boards of a number of international media companies, as well as having been the chairman of an NHS Hospital Trust. James was chair of the board until stepping back in early 2023.

Conor McCarthy: Conor’s practice encompasses public law, civil claims and international law. He is regularly instructed in complex disputes, both public and commercial, across chambers’ core areas of work. He has particular expertise in the areas of competition law, data protection and in claims involving issues of public or private international law or civil liberties.

He has substantial experience of multi-jurisdictional commercial and competition disputes, often being instructed in matters raising issues of jurisdiction, applicable law or international enforcement. He also has expertise in international trade law and sanctions. He has been instructed in cases before both domestic and international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice. He was appointed independent expert to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Hearing on Sanctions.

Prior to coming to the bar, Conor was a fellow of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and taught international law at Cambridge University. He has published widely on issues of international law

Yasmin Namini is a media executive with leadership success as an industry trailblazer, driving game-changing digital transformation for one of the world's most iconic brands, The New York Times. In her role as Senior Vice President, Chief Consumer Officer, Yasmin led The Times's print and digital subscription consumer revenue business, marketing and consumer insights. Yasmin left the Times in March 2015 when consumer revenue represented 53% of the company's total revenues; a transformative achievement in an industry traditionally dominated by advertising revenue.

Since leaving The Times, Yasmin works as an independent consultant and advisor to media and entertainment companies worldwide, specializing in digital transformation, monetization strategies and marketing. Her clients include notable media and entertainment brands including Aftenposten/Schibsted Media Group (Norway), Anandabazar Patrika (ABP) Group (India), El Tiempo (Colombia) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Inc. (USA). Yasmin also serves on Media24 South Africa's Digital Advisory Forum, a digital advisory committee reporting to Media24's Board of Directors. She has served on a variety of non-profit Boards and advisory committees including the International News Media Association (INMA), Oceanic Society, Alliance for Audited Media, Times Square Alliance and The News Literacy Project. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer at IESE Business School, University of Navarra.

Grzegorz Piechota studies how technology can disrupt industries, including the media, as part of his research for both the University of Oxford and Harvard Business School. His project at Oxford's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism examines the impact of digital platforms on paid content models of news organisations.

In 1996 he began his career in reporting at Gazeta Wyborcza, in one of the smallest local offices, rising to a news editor and a vice-president of Agora Foundation. A 2016 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Piechota explored the transformation of the media business and the future of work in creative industries.

In addition, Piechota serves as a digital strategy adviser for Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza (Agora) and consults with media companies worldwide.

He is a member of the International News Media Association’s Board of Directors and is a past president of INMA’s EuropeDivision. He is an active member of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, the Online News Association, the Global Editors Network.

David Potter CBE is an academic, scientist and entrepreneur. He founded Psion in 1980 and led its development in software and the world’s first consumer hand-held computers. Together with Nokia, Sony, Ericsson and Motorola, he created Symbian the first licensed software merging mobile phones and portable computers. In 1999 he was named Britain’s Entrepreneur of the year. David has served on national committees on higher education, science and technology and The Court of the Bank of England. He and his wife Elaine established the David and Elaine Potter Foundation.

Elaine Potter is the co-founder of the David and Elaine Potter Foundation. A former member of the Sunday Times Insight team she co-authored several Sunday Times books, including Suffer the Children: the Story of Thalidomide and Destination Disaster: From the Tri-Motor to the DC10. Born in South Africa, she is a trustee of the University of Cape Town Trust.