BLACKROOK MEDIA - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Production Editor

Adam is a writer, producer and programme editor well used to 24-hour rolling international news - having run output teams in the UK and in Nigeria as part of BlackRook's contract work for ARISE News since 2015.

Job Titles:

• Managing Director
• Advisory Board Member of Wolverhampton University 's Screen School

Alan leads the BlackRook companies and is our principal consultant and producer, having worked at senior executive level for some of Europe's most significant media brands. He's a former Editor of the UK's iconic Daytime TV programme This Morning. He was part of the senior management team that ran the ITV network's breakfast shows GMTV and Lorraine and then launched Daybreak. In 2010 and 2011 Alan was a member of the executive team that runs all of ITV News - its Nations and Regions. For five years, he was Head of News of England's biggest television region - ITV Central. Alan has also run tri-media news operations worldwide for the British Forces Broadcasting Service. He joined with partners to form the international media services company BlackRook Media in London in the the autumn of 2011 - and has since established the online content provider BlackRook Productions along with Enterprise BlackRook - trading out of the Nigerian capital Abuja. Alan's various leadership roles across the commercial and charity sectors have seen him take commissioning editor responsibilities across television, radio and online for 15 years. It's work that's seen Alan and his teams win international, national and regional awards for journalism and film-making. He's a member of the UK's Royal Television Society (rts.org.uk). He's been a national and regional awards judge for the RTS since 2005. He's an awards judge for the Association for International Broadcasting (aib.org.uk) and is himself a winner of the International Federation of Journalists' documentary prize (ifj.org) Alan serves as an advisory board member of Wolverhampton University's Screen School. From 2013 to 2017 he worked as a charity Trustee, joining the Board of The Caxton Foundation as a Director. Funded by the Department of Health the charity helped those suffering hardship as a result of infected National Health Service blood transfusions in the late 1970s and early 1980s

Job Titles:

• Digital Marketing Content Editor
• Social Media Lead

Emily Davies is a digital marketing content editor who has developed and implemented digital strategy for a variety of brands including ITV, adidas, Aviva, Guide Dogs, Maersk and Barratt Homes. She delivers bespoke social media training and guidance to businesses and charities, building on her relationships with key press and media individuals she also assists brands with PR and marketing strategies. Emily is a trained journalist and a self shooter and editor, with more than ten years' experience working in the media.

Job Titles:

• Africa Lead
• Group 's Lead Representative

Africa Lead - Emma Dibia Emma Dibia is the BlackRook Group's lead representative across Africa and a Director of Enterprise BlackRook (Nigeria) Limited. Emma Dibia served as Legal Adviser to the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly between 2011-2014. He joined the BlackRook leadership team in January 2017.

Job Titles:

• Post Production Lead

Kieron is an accomplished editor, camera operator and audio engineer, specialising in fast turn-around high-end work, particularly in the news production and corporate sectors. He began his career as a runner in 1989 at the renowned post-production house Telecine/Cell in Soho, and was trained there as a VT operator, and then worked in broadcast transmission at Channel 4, before retraining as a camera operator, working on location and in studio, for clients such as Nickelodeon, Warner Bros and MTV.. In 1997 he was trained in Avid post-production and began a freelance career, editing mainly for the BBC News and ITN flagship shows where he honed his storytelling skills and fast editing headlines to strict deadlines, both on Avid Newscutter systems and Sony two-machine tape decks. He then began building edit suites for clients requiring in-house facilities. Kieron has built BlackRook Media our own state of the art edit facility and recording studio from scratch, combining his technical skills with his passion for audio and music production and all things synthesizer and electric guitar based. He is an Apple Mac specialist, and is equally at home working with Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Pro software as he is Adobe Premiere. He also maintains a 4K video camera unit, looking after various clients and ongoing work, both corporate and broadcast, and has been lucky enough to have worked all over the world shooting and editing for a wide range of projects and clients, and he is still just as excited about working in such a dynamic industry as he was when he first began as a runner!Kieron occasionally teaches editing techniques and post-production, and has written a comprehensive training programme that has been used in Adult Learning Centres and colleges across the country, including ACS Cobham International School, Coulsdon College, and A&CL St Helens.

Job Titles:

• Executive Producer
• Managing Director
• Editorial Manager, Journalist and Trainer

Lucy is an editorial manager, journalist and trainer who has worked as a producer for some of Britain's most significant broadcast brands - in international, network, regional and local newsrooms. Lucy was a producer for Janice Long on BBC Radio 2 and early in her career also worked at BBC Radio WM. Lucy is an Executive Producer at BlackRook Media, working on international TV news production contracts and corporate video production. She is an awards judge for the Midlands Centre of The Royal Television Society.

Job Titles:

• Industry Leader
• Strategy Lead

Mark has been an industry leader for more than 20 years, having held a string of senior management posts with the UK's largest commercial broadcaster. He was Managing Director of ITV Meridian and the network's Regional Director responsible for the south and south east of England, as well as ITV London, ITV West and ITV Westcountry. Mark is skilled in developing strategy, delivering high-quality, cost-effective editorial services and leading cultural and workflow change. He offers highly developed relationship and stakeholder management skills and considerable experience in all areas of people management, coaching and leadership. While at ITV, Mark had overall responsibility for the broadcast output, financial management, and staff of three of ITV Plc's regional licences. That amounted to approximately 250 staff and an annual budget of almost £20 million. Mark was a key member of the ITV News Senior Management Team working on strategies for a sustainable future for regional commercial broadcasting. The role involved working with the broadcasting regulator (OFCOM), government (DCMS) and across all areas of ITV Plc. Mark has been a Commissioning Editor of some of ITV's most successful regional non-news programmes.

Job Titles:

• Lead Technician
• Technical Lead

Mick is BlackRook's Lead Technician, ensuring excellence in video production and in support of all of our media training work. A documentary maker and contract cameraman for ITV, Mick has worked on the road in news and features for the regional broadcaster ITV Meridian, across the south and south east of England, since 1993. Before that he worked as a sound technician and on cameras for TVS and its flagship Coast to Coast programme. In more than 25 years in broadcasting Mick has routinely served network productions, as well as regional newsrooms. He's worked on a variety of content - from Saturday morning Children's programmes to some of the biggest news stories in the south east of England. They include location coverage of The Herald of Free Enterprise cross Channel ferry disaster in 1987 through the building and opening of the Channel Tunnel to the Great Flood that covered so much of southern England in 2000. His long experience is a key element of what makes BlackRook's offer - right across its services - a proposition of genuine authority and quality.

Job Titles:

• Development Lead
• Key Member

Neil's career in broadcast television now spans nearly 30 years - from the iconic BBC sports show Grandstand to the network's BBC News Channel and BBC World. He is a former Lead Director at BBC News and has worked on many national and international programme launches as well as implementing global re-branding projects for the BBC. Neil worked as Lead Director at Celebro Media and was Global Lead Director at Arise news. He looked after the studio operations of the channel launch and programme launches in London, New York & Johannesburg. He was also launch director for ITV's Meridian Broadcasting and the Polish sports channel Wizja TV. Neil was recruited by the English Premier League club Middlesborough to launch its TV channel - Boro TV. He's worked as a studio and outside broadcast director with a host of TV companies. Neil is a key member of the BlackRook team that guides clients through the process of securing broadcasting licences, finding the right premises and setting the right content schedule.

Job Titles:

• Production Editor

Nicky is a producer and programme editor - having worked for international news channels BBC World and Al Jazeera, and is part of Blackrook's contract work for ARISE News and Iran International. Nicky is currently a producer on Blackrook's contract with DMA Media, responsible for co-ordinating teams in New York, Berlin and London to produce editions of the bi-weekly media review show, Iran In The Eyes of Others for Iran International. Between 2015 - 2018, she worked with Al Jazeera and BBC as both an output producer and video producer, covering 24-hour rolling news, domestic and international. She has more than 15 years experience in regional press in the UK, starting her career as a press photographer with Trinity Mirror before helping pioneer online video journalism for Midlands News Association - the United Kingdom's biggest regional publisher, where she held the role of video journalist for seven years, often travelling overseas for assignments. There, she also worked on a busy newsdesk as both online editor and picture editor, overseeing a team of photographers and reporters.

Job Titles:

• Assistant Producer

Oliver's work with BlackRook covers responsibilities as an Assistant Producer and Research Assistant​. He's involved across a variety of projects, often on location as well as putting in the hours at his desk. He has specific sales research responsibilities in supporting BlackRook's production agreement with the Local TV group of channels that broadcast on Sky, Freeview and Virgin in cities across England and Wales. Oliver works as part of a team that identifies potential clients and then introduces the products and services we offer. He also contributes daily social media posts for BlackRook on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin. His Assistant Producer duties involve supporting our teams in video production, in preparing materials for presentations and media coaching and also at events. At the world's biggest ever banking industry conference in 2019, Oliver managed the handling of nearly 80 interview guests appearing on our Sibos TV service at the ExCeL in London.

Job Titles:

• Communications Counsel
• Communications Lead

Philip Gomm provides communications counsel for Blackrook Media and leads all of our public relations projects. He is currently Head of External Communications at the RAC Foundation. The Foundation is a registered charity and one of the country's leading research and advocacy organisations. It is renowned for the quality of its work and the strength of its arguments. Testament to the charity's standing and Philip's professionalism comes from a 2011 Ipsos MORI poll of transport journalists in which the RAC Foundation was ranked, out of some 50 different bodies, 1st for media relations and 4th for familiarity. Prior to joining the Foundation, Philip spent more than a decade working for ITV at both regional and network level, first as a general reporter and then as a lobby correspondent at Westminster. He has reported from all over the world including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uganda, the Czech Republic and the United States. A graduate of the London School of Economics Philip is also the ghostwriter of two books: the bestselling An Ordinary Soldier and its sequel Task Force Helmand.

Job Titles:

• Finance Lead

Sandy is BlackRook Media's financial controller and book-keeper, dealing with all invoicing, payments to staff and vendors in the UK and internationally. She's a member of three professional organisations: The Association of Accounting Technicians (qualified November 1997), The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (qualified March 2002) and The Association of Taxation Technicians (qualified September 2006). Sandy was made a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in May 2007. Alongside her administration and project work for BlackRook she has owned and run Berkshire Book-Keeping Services since 2003. Crisis Communications Masterclass Be fully prepared to deal with the media if a crisis hits Show me more

Job Titles:

• Presentation Lead

Sue has worked as a broadcaster and trainer for 30 years - fronting TV and radio programmes in the studio and on the road for the BBC, ITV and the British Forces Broadcasting Service, among others. She's a woman with a distinctive broadcast voice and a level of on-screen professionalism that's won her some coveted roles. Sue was the lead anchor of ITV's Meridian Tonight news magazine flagship in the south east of England for six years. During that time the programme was the most watched regional news show in England with a much envied audience share of more than 40 per cent every evening. She was a newsreader for ITV Anglia in Norwich and their Correspondent in Cambridge. Sue has worked as a Sports presenter for ITV, was a newsreader and reporter for BBC radio in Norwich and has been the national Welfare Correspondent for British Forces News - with responsibilities at BFBS across television, radio and online. As well as being a broadcast journalist, Sue is an accomplished corporate and event host. She's regularly made current affairs documentaries for television too - including half-hour films on subjects as diverse as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, paganism and gender reassignment. Alongside her work at BlackRook Media, Sue hosts her own show an BBC Radio Wiltshire and has worked for BBC Radio Berkshire and BBC Radio Oxford in news and programmes - including producer duties on The Debbie McGee Show, The Andrew Peach Show and on Phil Gayle and Friends. Sue's training and corporate work includes coaching global news presenters for Arise News and voice over work for London's Snow Fox Films.