Stephen Sackur Keynote Speaker

  • Presenter of BBC HARDtalk (2004-present)
  • Presenter of GMT on BBC World News (2010-present)
  • BBC Washington correspondent (1997-2002)

Stephen Sackur's Biography

Stephen Sackur is the current presenter and host of the BBC’s flagship current affairs and interview programme HARDtalk, having succeeded Tim Sebastian in 2004. He is also the main Friday presenter of GMT on BBC World News.

In his role at HARDtalk, Stephen has conducted many landmark interviews with international personalities including: Al Gore, Hugo Chávez, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Felipe Calderón, Shimon Peres, Mahmoud Abbas, Jalal Talabani and a host of other leaders and politicians from around the world. He has also interviewed leading cultural figures including Gore Vidal, Richard Dawkins, Noam Chomsky, Anwar Ibrahim, Annie Lennox and Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Prior to taking up his role at HARDtalk, Stephen was a widely followed foreign affairs correspondent covering major stories such as the Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1990. During the first Gulf War, Stephen was embedded with the British army for eight weeks where he covered the conflict and broke the news of the massacre of the retreating Iraqi army on the road leading out of Kuwait.

Stephen was the BBC’s Chief Washington Correspondent between 1997 and 2002, before returning to Iraq to cover the Second Gulf war in 2003. He has interviewed Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush, covered the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Over the past 10 years he has established himself as a popular moderator and chair, presenting at international conferences and high profile events around the world – from the IMF in Washington DC to the international climate change summit in Copenhagen.

In June 2017 Sackur was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate of International Relations (DIR) by the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations.

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Videos of Stephen Sackur

Interviewing Omar Abdullah on BBC HARDtalk (2014)
Interviewing Omar Abdullah on BBC HARDtalk (2014)
Moderating Discussion on Political Islam (2013)
Moderating Discussion on Political Islam (2013)

Comments & Testimonials

Stephen did a great job and had complete control over the presentation ceremony which made it run very smoothly. He was very professional and managed to keep to our tight timings....We would definitely consider using Stephen again in the future.
Seatrade Awards, 2013

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