Jane Barrett is Reuters Global Head of Multimedia and leads the digital transformation of the news agency. She works closely with media clients around the world to understand their changing digital needs and then ensures that Reuters changes to satisfy them. She also works closely with the major technology platforms on their news projects. Previously, she was the Business Editor for EMEA, led a financial video start-up and was a foreign correspondent in Rome, Milan and Madrid.

Martin Bentham is Home Affairs Editor of the Evening Standard and covers subjects including policing, terrorism, immigration and prisons. He also writes some of the paper’s leaders and reviews the newspapers on the BBC’s The Papers programme. Before joining the Evening Standard he worked for newspapers including The Sunday Telegraph, The Sun, and the Halifax Evening Courier.

Polly Curtis, previously editor-in-chief at HuffPost UK and digital editor at The Guardian, now a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute in Oxford. Polly is a director of the Society of Editors and a member of the panel advising the Cairncross Review, an independent inquiry commissioned by the government to make recommendations on the future sustainability of high quality news. She started her career as a reporter and has reported on health, education and social affairs and was a member of the Lobby through the 2010 election.

Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of global freedom of expression organisation, Index on Censorship, which campaigns on free speech issues worldwide. Index was one of the leading members of the UK libel reform coalition and, more recently, has campaigned against section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act and spoken out against state-backed press regulation. A four-year project by Index documenting threats to press freedom in Europe concluded in January 2019. Jodie is a former foreign correspondent and business journalist and was London Bureau Chief for Reuters from 2008 to 2011. She is a passionate believer in the power of words and the importance of good heels.

The panel will be chaired by: Michael Hayman, an entrepreneur, broadcaster and author. He co-founded the campaigns firm Seven Hills & co-authored Mission (Penguin). He hosts the TV show The Capital Conversation on London Live and is an experienced event host.  He has interviewed leaders from business, sports, politics and entertainment. He is a columnist for CityAM and capital markets columnist for the Yorkshire Post. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of London and an Honorary Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Judge Business School. He is Chair of Entrepreneurs at the private bank Coutts and co-founded StartUp Britain. He was awarded an MBE for services to enterprise.