Background
Sambrook, Richard Jeremy was born on April 24, 1956 in Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom. Son of Philip Michael Sambrook and Evelyn Joan Hartridge.
Sambrook, Richard Jeremy was born on April 24, 1956 in Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom. Son of Philip Michael Sambrook and Evelyn Joan Hartridge.
Sambrook was educated at Maidstone Technical High School, at the University of Reading (Bachelor in English) and at Birkbeck College, University of London (Master of Science in politics).
Foreign 30 years, until February 2010, he was a British Broadcasting Corporation journalist and news executive. He spent ten years on the management board of the British Broadcasting Corporation becoming successively Director of British Broadcasting Corporation Sport, British Broadcasting Corporation News and, latterly, Director of British Broadcasting Corporation World Service and Global News. From 2010 until 2012 he was Global Vice Chairman and Chief Content Officer of the Edelman public relations agency.
His career began in local newspapers in South Wales.
His time at the British Broadcasting Corporation was almost entirely in daily news. He merged radio and television news, and domestic and World Service newsgathering during this time, resulting in the world"s largest broadcast news operation.
He was acting Director of Sport in 2000, and became Director of News in 2001. On 20 July, he confirmed that Doctor David Kelly had been the source of the news item.
He later gave evidence to the Hutton Inquiry into Kelly"s apparent suicide.
Sambrook became Director of the World Service and Global News in September 2004. He oversaw major restructuring of the World Service, and its opening of Arabic and Persian television, as well as commercial interactive services. Since January 2010, he has been a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.
He is a Trustee of the World Wildlife Fund-United Kingdom 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 United Nations"s Internet Governance Forum. He was on the advisory board of the British Council and was formerly Chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation"s international charity, the World Service Trust, and a trustee of the free-speech non-governmental organization Article 19.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and of the Royal Society of Arts. Sambrook is married with two children.
Sambrook defended in June/July 2003 what became the highly controversial Today programme report that the Blair government had in its September Dossier knowingly exaggerated claims relating to Iraq"s supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction.
He was a member of the leadership committee of the Global Media Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Initiative, established by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2004. He was member of the jury panel of the One World Media Award 2014.
Married Susan Jane Fisher. Children: Huw, Freya.