Robert Peston

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Peston

Born	Robert Peston 25 April 1960 (1960-04-25) (age 48)
Nationality	British
Occupation	Journalist, news and TV presenter, author
Employers	BBC
Known for	Current Business editor of BBC News

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

Peston was educated at Highgate Wood School, a state comprehensive school in Crouch End in North London, and graduated from Balliol College at the University of Oxford. After graduating in 1982, he studied at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles before working briefly at stockbroker Williams de Broe.

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 Poliitcal 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 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".

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, 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. He also 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 delivery. The Times, for example, has branded his style "ragged and querulous" ^[1]. Peston himself concedes that he is "still not as polished as some" but says he is "loads better than I was"^[2]

In February 2008, Hodder & Stoughton published Peston's latest book, "Who Runs Britain? How the Super-Rich are Changing our Lives." In the Guardian, Polly Toynbee said of it: "Reading Peston's book, you can only be flabbergasted all over again at how Labour kowtowed to wealth, glorified the City and put all the nation's economic eggs into one dangerous basket of fizzy finance."

He is married to the writer Sian Busby and is the son of Labour peer and economist Maurice Peston, Baron Peston.