Career
Born in Slough, United Kingdom, he joined the Windsor, Slough and Eton Express newspaper in 1979 as an indentured apprentice, and a chance conversation with disc jockey Tony Prince resulted in an invitation to edit Radio Luxembourg"s English language news bulletins on a freelance basis. A teleprinter breakdown meant he had to read one bulletin by telephone, and he became the first journalist ever to read a bulletin on the station. Arnold worked for a number of radio and television stations before moving to Plymouth Sound Radio in 1983, where he became assistant head of news, and relaunched the flagship evening news and current affairs programme, Plymouth Sound Reports.
He moved to British Broadcasting Corporation Belfast as a reporter in 1987, where he gained a world exclusive when he discovered and interviewed the priest acting as the intermediary between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Provisional Ireland Republican Army over the dispute surrounding the burial of Larry Marley.
Arnold then moved to London where he worked as a reporter for British Broadcasting Corporation television"s London Plus programme, under the guidance of producer Neil Hughes, at the British Broadcasting Corporation"s aging Lime Grove Studios, and as a newsreader for the British Forces Broadcasting Service, BFBS. He was invited to join the launch team of Sky News in 1989, where he was the first solo news anchor. He also reported on the Ireland Republican Army killing of Eastbourne Member of Parliament Ian Gow, and was beaten up on camera during the poll tax riot in London"s Trafalgar Square.
Arnold"s assailant was later jailed. He left the station after it merged with British Satellite Broadcasting, to become a freelance public relations consultant.
He started in 1997, dealing with crisis communications, media training, and corporate video productions.
One of Arnold"s clients was the Portuguese of London, where he advised the authority on the media implications of the government inquiry into the Marchioness disaster. Arnold has worked with a range of corporate clients on reputation management issues. He has close links with the water industry, with which he has been connected ever since privatisation.
He has also lectured in journalism in various universities in the United Kingdom and United States. The American Broadcasting Company network programme, The John Batchelor Show, called him one of Europe"s leading spin doctors.
Arnold is an expert on disability rights and has worked on many high profile campaigns for Guide Dogs, the European Guide Dog Federation and the Royal London Society for Blind People - both as a strategist and media spokesman. Arnold is married with two children and lives in Langley.
