Mary Ann Sieghart Keynote Speaker

Mary Ann Sieghart is a highly regarded current affairs commentator and presenter, whose new book ‘The Authority Gap’ looks at how we still don’t take women as seriously as men, and what we can do about it. Having examined all the research, she is full of ideas for how organisations can tackle gender bias and help more women reach the top.

Mary Ann began her career as a Eurobond correspondent and Lex Columnist at the Financial Times, before moving to become Business Editor of Today newspaper. In 1988, she joined The Times, where she worked as Comment Editor, Arts Editor, Chief Political leader-writer and columnist. In 2007, she left the paper to pursue portfolio work. She remains a regular contributor to print media.

In 2008, she was a founding partner of The Browser website, a current affairs content aggregation website. In the same year she joined Newshour, the BBC World Service’s flagship news and current affairs programme, as a presenter. From 2010 to 2012, she wrote a weekly column in The Independent about politics, economics and social affairs.

Mary Ann continues to work as a regular broadcaster, appearing on BBC Question Time, Any Questions, Newsnight, Woman’s Hour and has presented Start the Week, Fallout, Analysis, Profile and One to One on BBC Radio 4, as well as many one-off documentaries.

She chaired the Social Market Foundation think tank for ten years, and currently sits on the boards of the Scott Trust (owner of The Guardian and The Observer), the Merchants Trust and Pantheon International. She has also been a non-executive director of the Ofcom Content Board, Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust, DLN Digital, and the Council of Tate Modern.