Andrew Knight
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- For the inventor of storyline patents, see Andrew Knight (patent agent)
Andrew Stephen Bower Knight (born 1 November 1939 in England) is a journalist, editor, and media magnate.
He was educated at Ampleforth College, where he was Head Boy, and was awarded an Exhibition to Balliol College, Oxford (MA, Modern History). Knight worked at the City of London merchant bankers, J. Henry Schroder Wagg, from 1961 to 1963 and the Investors Chronicle from 1962 until 1966.
He joined The Economist in 1966 on the international business and investment sections. From March 1968 to April 1970 he served in the Washington offices of the paper before returning to Europe to establish its European section and, in 1973, its offices in Brussels.
Knight was named Editor of The Economist in October 1974. Aged 34, he was the youngest Editor in the newspaper's history. He remained Editor until 1986, and was named International Editor of the Year by World Press Review in June 1981.
He masterminded the take-over of the floundering Telegraph Group in 1985, taking the Daily Telegraph's ailing circulation and turning it into the highest selling broadsheet in the UK. Knight successfully approached Conrad Black for financing of the take-over, and controversially appointed Max Hastings a historian and former BBC journalist, as editor of The Daily Telegraph. Knight was Chief Executive and Editor-in-Chief of the London Daily Telegraph Group from January 1986 until October 1989.
In March 1990, Knight joined News International plc as Chairman. Rupert Murdoch named Knight as his "Backstop and successor" prior to Knight retiring in June 1994 after a severe skiing accident. He was appointed a Director of News Corporation Limited on 31st January 1991 and became a non-executive Director in 1994.
Knight is the Chairman of News Corporation's Compensations Committee; a board member of News Corporation's Audit Committee; a director of the Rothschild Investment Trust (RITCP); Chairman of the Jerwood Charity; Chairman of Shipston Home Nursing; Founding Chairman of the SMA Trust; a council member of the Brain and Spine Foundation; a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre of Economic Policy Research at Stanford University, California; a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute of International Studies, Stanford University; Governor (and member of the Council of Management) of the Ditchley Foundation; Chairman of the Harlech Scholars’ Trust; a Director of the Kirov Opera and Ballet (London).
He was also formerly Chairman of the Ballet Rambert; Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum; Governor of Imperial College of Science & Technology; Council member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House); member of the Board of Overseers at the Hoover Institution, Stanford; member of the Steering Committee, Bilderberg Group; Council member of Templeton College, Oxford; non-executive Director of Reuters Holdings plc and of Tandem Computers Inc.
Andrew Knight has three children: Stephen Casimir Bower Knight, Amaryllis Salima Bower Knight and Afsaneh Zoe Bower Knight. The journalist and author India Knight is his step-daughter.
| Preceded by Alastair Burnet |
Editor of The Economist 1974-1986 |
Succeeded by Rupert Pennant-Rea |
