Robert Peston

Infobox Person
name = Robert Peston


birth_name = Robert Peston
birth_date = birth date and age|1960|04|25|df=yes
birth_place =
death_date =
death_place =
death_cause =
known_for = Current Business editor of BBC News
nationality = British
resting_place =
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education =
employer = BBC
occupation = Journalist, news and TV presenter, author

Robert Peston (born 25 April 1960) is a British journalist. Since February 2006, he has been the Business Editor for BBC News.

He is famous for breaking the story on the financial crisis at Northern Rock. It is widely believed that his report on the banking crisis in the United Kingdom on Monday 6th October forced the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Prime Minister to agree to a bail-out of the large British banks.

Biography

Peston is the son of economist and later Labour peer Maurice Peston, Baron Peston of Mile End and his NHS-employee wife. The couple believed passionately in state education, and sent Robert to the local comprehensive school, Highgate Wood School, in Crouch End, North London.citeweb|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2008/01/24/ftpeston124.xml|title=Robert Peston: 'I'm not going to become smooth and phoney'|publisher=The Telegraph|date=2008-01-24|accessdate=2008-10-08] Peston graduated from Balliol College at the University of Oxford in 1982, and then studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Career

Peston briefly worked at stockbroker Williams de Broe, before he became a journalist in 1983 for the "Investors Chronicle," before joining the "Independent" newspaper for its launch in 1986. In 1985, he won the Bronze Medal at the Montreal Comedy Festival for his impression of Margaret Thatcher. Mark Thatcher is believed to have provided material for his routine. From 1989 to 1990 Peston worked for the short-lived "Sunday Correspondent" newspaper as Deputy City Editor, before being appointed City Editor of the "Independent on Sunday" in 1990.

From 1991 to 2000, he worked for the "Financial Times". At the FT, he was - at various times - Political Editor, Banking Editor and head of an investigations unit (which he founded). During his time as Political Editor he memorably fell out with the then Downing Street Press Secretary Alastair Campbell who regularly mimicked Peston's habit of flicking back his hair and once responded to a difficult question with the words: "Another question from the Peston school of smartarse journalism." His last position at the FT was Financial Editor (in charge of business and financial coverage).

In 2000, he became editorial director of the online financial analysis service Quest, owned by the financial firm, Collins Stewart. At the same time, he became associate editor of the "Spectator" and a weekly columnist for the "Daily Telegraph." In 2001 he switched allegiances from the Telegraph to the "Sunday Times", where he wrote a weekly business profile, Peston's People, and left the Spectator for the "New Statesman," where he wrote a weekly column.

In 2002 he joined "the Sunday Telegraph" as City editor and assistant editor. He became associate editor in 2005.

Peston published his Biography of Gordon Brown "Brown's Britain" in January 2005, which details the rivalry between Gordon Brown and the then Prime Minister Tony Blair. "Brown's Britain" was described by Sir Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics, as "a book of unusual political significance". The fly cover of the book describes how "Peston was given unprecedented access to Gordon Brown and his friends and colleagues". Telling Brown's side of the Blair/Brown power struggle, it is believed that Peston has used the relationship then built up with Brown for many of his later financial news story "scoops" at the BBC. It was noted that during the Northern Rock episode, many of Peston's comments seemed more directed towards Mervyn King and the Bank of England, rather than the tripartate regulatory system that had been designed and put in place by Brown 10 years earlier.

In late 2005, it was announced that Peston would succeed Jeff Randall as BBC Business Editor, responsible for business and city coverage on the corporation's flagship TV and radio news programmes, the BBC News Channel (then called "BBC News 24"), and its website. He broadcasts principally on Radio 4's Today Programme and the BBC News at Ten. Peston also writes a blog, [http://bbc.co.uk/robertpeston Peston's Picks] .

Peston is a past winner of the Harold Wincott Senior Financial Journalist of the Year Award (2005), the London Press Club's Scoop of the Year Award (2005), Granada Television's What the Papers Say award for Investigative Journalist of the Year (1994) and the Wincott Young Financial Journalist of the Year (1986).

In 2007, Peston's scoop on Northern Rock seeking emergency financial help from the Bank of England won the Royal Television Society's Television Journalism Award for Scoop of the Year and the Wincott Award for Business News/Current Affairs Programme of the Year. He was Journalist of the Year in the Business Journalism of the Year Awards for 2007/8, and also won in the Scoop category.

Peston won the Work Foundation's Broadcast News Journalism Award and the Foundation's Radio Programme of the Year Award (for his File on 4, "The Inside Story of Northern Rock"). His blog won the digital media category in the Private Equity and Venture Capital Journalist of the Year Awards.

In spite of his accolades, Peston's transition to televised news has attracted some criticism from media outlets, mainly for his style of delivery, which frequently includes more "errr"s than words. The Times, for example, has branded his style "ragged and querulous" [ [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article3661868.ece Peston criticised by The Times] Times Online] . Peston himself concedes that he is "still not as polished as some" but says he is "loads better than I was" [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2008/01/24/ftpeston124.xml Robert Peston Interview] The Telegraph]

Personal life

Peston is married to the writer Sian Busby. The couple have a Arsenal fan son, Max. Peston chills out with his collection of 500 singles from the Seventies.

References

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/ Peston's blog] on BBC site
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/news/robert_peston.shtml BBC press release about Peston's appointment]