The John Schofield Trust is a small charity made up of a board of trustees, advisers and staff.
Howard is the Director of the John Schofield Trust. He has previously worked in higher education, where for ten years he oversaw campaigns and projects focused on empowering young people to be powerful advocates. He was a senior manager at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he was responsible for management of the membership-facing teams in the Students’ Union, notably including projects focused on underrepresented students.
He has been both a mentor and mentee throughout his career, and has witnessed the transformative effect it can have on individual development. This along with the compelling mission of the John Schofield Trust attracted him to join at a time of great momentum for the organisation.
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Rupinder is the Co-ordinator of the John Schofield Trust. She has a background in HR and psychology, with a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. She has worked to create more equitable opportunities for underrepresented groups, both in professional environments and in the broader community.
As the founder of Asian Women Mean Business, she has seen the power of mentoring and coaching helping Asian women unlock their silent strength and empower them to reach their full potential.
She will be supporting us with our social media, events and fundraising efforts.
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Sunita is the Head of Regions for Channel 4 News leading the newsroom in Leeds which features a mix of television, data and digital production. C4 News is the first primetime national news programme to be dual presenter from two locations. Sunita also leads the teams working outside of London in Greater Manchester, the Midlands, Scotland and Wales.
She previously worked at BBC News leading the Learning and Identity story team in Leeds and the Northern Bureau news operation which covered all the main national news in the North of England. She has worked on stories ranging from the Manchester Arena Bombing to the Hillsborough fight for justice. She started her BBC career at BBC Radio Lincolnshire in 2007, and has worked across regional TV and Online, as well as Newsround.
Sunita started her journalism career working at the weekly newspaper The Craven Herald in Skipton before moving to the Telegraph & Argus in Bradford.
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Holly is the Head of Workforce Delivery at Skills for Care, the leading workforce organisation for adult social care in England, where she is responsible for a portfolio of national programmes.
She has over 20 years’ experience in senior leadership positions across health and social care, with a successful track record in strategy, governance, finance, workforce, change and programme management. Holly is passionate about social justice and inclusion issues, and this is reflected in her career history. She believes in the power of difference and the value that comes from a range of lived experience perspectives.
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Rob is a multi award winning journalist based in Wales. He presents the long running political programme Sharp End for ITV Cymru Wales and is also the channel’s National Correspondent. Rob has a long established relationship with the John Schofield Trust having been a fellow, senior fellow and now a trustee.
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Jenny is treasurer for the John Schofield Trust. She is a Finance Business Partner in the BBC for News and Current Affairs. She has worked in news for a number of years looking after many of the departments Newsgathering, International Offices, Current Affairs, Central Areas. She also worked in television and was the Finance Director for the Digital Switchover. Originally from New Zealand she has an audit background and has lived in London for many years. She has two daughters in senior school and was the treasurer for 10 years of a very successful after-school provision. Jenny is currently a school governor at an Acton primary school with finance responsibility.
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Eileen is part of the News Editor team working across BBC News, around the world.
Working in the centre of the BBC newsroom she oversees the day-to-day news and current affairs agenda, legal and editorial policy issues and leads on several long-term projects.
She previously led digital teams at the BBC and worked at the Press Association, IPC Magazines and across local and national newspaper titles.
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Susie met John in 1986 when they were both studying at the University of Sussex and they married in 1993. With the support of family and friends, Susie set up the John Schofield Trust after John’s death. In 2012, she was given the RTS Judges’ Award for setting up the Trust’s mentoring scheme. In 2021, Susie was named as one of ’50 Leading Lights’ in the Kind Leadership Revolution. From 2019-21, she served as a judge on the RTS panel for Young Talent of the Year.
By day, Susie works at the University of Surrey creating and editing content.
Susie was awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List in 2023 for services to journalism and to diversity in the journalism industry.
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Fergus Bell is a journalist and media consultant with a long-standing commitment to fostering innovation and sustainability in the news industry. With over a decade of experience, Fergus has worked at the intersection of journalism, technology, and social impact, helping to drive collaboration and ethical transformation within global media organisations.
He is the co-founder of Pop-Up Newsroom, an initiative known for pioneering collaborative journalism projects, including the award-winning “Verificado” and “Electionland” misinformation monitoring initiatives.
In 2019, Fergus co-founded Fathm, a consultancy and news lab dedicated to addressing the challenges of misinformation, facilitating sustainable change, and exploring the role of AI in journalism. Most recently, he co-launched Syli, a non-profit organization aimed at transforming how the climate crisis is reported by newsrooms worldwide.
Fergus began his career freelancing in local radio before moving to CNN, ITV and Channel 4 News. He spent eight years at the Associated Press, where he served as the organization’s first International Social Media and UGC Editor, shaping newsroom practices around digital newsgathering and verification. His expertise is sought after by broadcasters, publishers, and start-ups across the globe.
He is also a 2019 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow, a faculty member of the European Broadcasting Union’s Academy, and a Senior Fellow of the John Schofield Trust.
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A journalist for more than 30 years, Kate has worked in radio and TV for the BBC’s domestic and international services. She was a trustee for the John Schofield Trust from 2018-22.
Kate has trained journalists all over the world in multi-cultural and multi-lingual contexts – covering radio, TV and digital social media. She is a BBC-trained coach and experienced mentor both inside and outside the BBC. As Managing Editor of the BBC Newsgathering, Kate developed an interest in supporting journalists reporting in conflict and disaster zones on high risk stories, as well as those affected by working on distressing stories in newsrooms at home. Kate co-ordinated the BBC’s trauma support network for six years and provided both awareness training and debrief support for the BBC.
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Ayshah is a BAFTA-nominated news correspondent and presenter for Channel 4 News. She has worked at Sky, BBC and ITN in various roles and is was a mentee in one of our earliest cohorts.
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Shaunagh Connaire is a double Emmy-nominated independent journalist and filmmaker and the first female recipient of the Freedom of Longford (Ireland) honour. She’s worked as a Director at the Clooney Foundation for Justice, reporting directly to George and Amal Clooney, an Editor at the Financial Times in New York, a Producer and Edit Director at the BBC, and a Reporter/Producer at Channel 4 in the UK.
Shaunagh was the first documentary maker to enter the Ebola zone in West Africa in 2014. Her Channel 4 and PBS Frontline film was nominated for an Emmy award and won the prestigious duPont-Columbia Award. While at the Financial Times, she established and spearheaded the paper’s first-of-its-kind partnership with major US broadcaster PBS in a film called ‘Opioids Inc’. This film was nominated for an Emmy and won a Gerald Loeb Award from UCLA.
Shaunagh has made documentaries in Iran, Lebanon, China (undercover), Honduras, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Djibouti, US, Albania, Mexico, and Ireland. She’s been published in the Financial Times, the Irish Independent, Elle Magazine, openDemocracy, the Guardian, and Broadcast. She’s also the host of the Media Tribe podcast, which hit number one in the ‘Society & Culture’ Apple charts in Ireland.
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Jonathan is Managing Editor of The News Movement. He is a trustee for Podium Me and a visiting lecturer in journalism for City University of London.
Jonathan spent a decade at the BBC, most recently as their Head of Video.
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Nick Phipps is an output editor at Sky News. He has run the channel’s election night programming since the Scottish Referendum of 2014, a period which has taken in four general elections and the Brexit referendum of 2016. He also has responsibility for evening programming including Sky News at Ten and the Press Preview.
He was part of the leadership team for the launch of two multi-platform news operations and was executive editor for the launch of Sky News Arabia in 2012. He also ran the Sky News business unit during the global financial crisis.
He began his career with ITN as a news trainee, and worked in both newsgathering and output before becoming the programme editor of the ITV Evening News.
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John Battle is a lawyer and is the Head of Compliance at ITN. He advises editors and journalists from ITN’s editorial services on legal and regulatory issues, both prior to and following publication / broadcast. He has worked as a lawyer in the news media industry for over 20 years , including two major newspaper groups.
John is Chair of the Media Lawyers Association and is on the Parliamentary and Legal Committee of the Society of Editors. He has a particular interest in open justice issues and court reporting. He wrote the ITN Compliance Manual which is the guide for journalistic standards at ITN. He is an employed barrister and prior to working in the media industry worked as a barrister in the courts.
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Matt Walsh is head of the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University. Prior to becoming an academic, he worked as a producer and editor for more than 20 years at ITN, The Times, and Al Jazeera, where he covered national and international stories such as 9/11 and the Iraq war.
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Roohi is an award-winning Senior producer at ITN, working at ITV News for more than a decade. She started her career at 5News where she soon became a News Editor. She has also worked at Channel 4 News. Her journalism has taken her around the world, from America including for the historic 2016 Election, to India to Europe. She has covered some of the biggest international stories over the years, including the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to most recently the conflict in Syria and throughout has interviewed leading global figures. Her investigations at home have included shining a light on British soldiers with PTSD and those facing discrimination in the NHS, and abroad on victims of climate change and rape in India, and those under siege of Aleppo. Her journalism has been well recognised with personal awards and had her work her shows recognised by BAFTA and the Royal Television Society. Roohi’s great passion is mentoring particularly disadvantaged youth. She does this personally, at work and through Prince Charles’ charity, Mosaic as well as with the John Schofield Trust. She has written about mentoring for the Financial Times. and has been working to improve newsroom diversity too.
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Mark is former Head of Training at the BBC and ex MD of Press Association Training. Mark has worked as a newspaper, TV and radio journalist and was a programme editor at BBC Radio 5 Live. He’s coached several hundred BBC reporters, correspondents and presenters including many household names. Mark is now semi-retired doing some journalism mentoring and development and awards judging. He’s an external examiner for Bournemouth University’s Broadcast Journalism course.
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Ronke Phillips has been a journalist for more than 20 years and has been fortunate enough to enjoy a varied career in print, radio and television. She has worked both as a presenter and reporter – for national and regional television, both in the UK and abroad. Ronke, who is of Nigerian heritage, attended a girl’s school in Putney before gaining a BSC honours degree in Third World Economics and Social Sciences. She began her broadcast career working as a radio reporter for a host of local BBC Radio stations including BBC Radio London, Nottingham, Leicester and Derby.
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Simon Wilson is an experienced international journalist having worked overseas for BBC News for more than twenty years, including lengthy postings as bureau chief in Washington, Brussels and Jerusalem. In 2019, he was appointed Head of Journalism for Europe and the Americas at the BBC World Service managing a team of around 300 journalists including those working for both BBC Russian and BBC Ukrainian during the current conflict. Since leaving the BBC in 2023, he has worked as a consultant for several media organisations, including the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Simon has mentored journalists through the John Schofield Trust and various BBC programmes throughout his career and helped pioneer the BBC’s internal schemes to support journalists impacted by trauma while covering conflicts and disasters.
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Simon has been Royal correspondent for 5 News since 2008, reporting on some of the biggest celebrations, tours and controversies in recent years. The Royal beat is only part of his brief and Simon also led Channel 5’s coverage of the Paris and Brussels attacks along with many high profile court cases and London 2012. His association with 5 News goes back to the launch and he is the only remaining reporter from the original 1997 line-up.
Simon has also worked for some of the biggest players in radio including Capital and LBC and been a voiceover artist for Discovery, Sky Sports and Formula 1. He is one of the fiendish question-setters of the Ultimate News Quiz and says a career highlight was a cameo in the League of Gentlemen.
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Layla is an award-winning freelance journalist and documentary presenter from Liverpool. Most recently, Layla produced and presented BBC Three documentary, False Hope? Alternative Cancer Treatments, an investigation into natural cancer therapies. Her BBC debut – an investigation for Radio 4 Today’s podcast – uncovered that gang leaders in Merseyside are offering teenagers hundreds of pounds to stab each other. Her findings were used in a parliamentary report to tackle serious crime.
She was named Young Journalist of the Year at the O2 Media Awards 2019 for her reporting for BBC Radio 4 and Radio City, which included her documentary, Gangs, Guns & Grassing. Layla was a mentee on our 2019-20 scheme.
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