Kim Fletcher was appointed to the board of the NCTJ in June 2003 and is its current chairman.  Until recently he was editorial director of Telegraph Group Ltd, publisher of The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, and telegraph.co.uk.

Kim read law at Hertford College, Oxford, before joining The Star, Sheffield, which sponsored him on the postgraduate journalism course at University College, Cardiff. He left Sheffield - having gained his NCTJ proficiency certificate - to freelance on Fleet Street, before joining the staff of The Sunday Times. In 1998, after four years as deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph, he was appointed editor of The Independent on Sunday.

In 25 years on Fleet Street, Kim has written for most national newspapers as a news reporter, sports columnist or feature writer.

Kim, who has also worked for ITN Channel Four News, is a regular guest on BBC, Sky and CNN Television and on BBC Radio Four and Five. He is author of The Journalist’s Handbook, published by Macmillan.

Liz Page is northern regional managing director of Archant Life magazines which publishes an expanding portfolio of titles including Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire Life.

She joined Archant in spring 2006 after being managing director of Newsquest (York), publisher of the Evening Press, Gazette & Herald, www.thisisyork.co.uk and several niche publications.  She was editor of the Evening Press from 1996 to 2003 during which time it won a string of awards.

Liz was president of the Society of Editors from 2001-2002 and a member of the Society’s training committee for several years.  Her previous career includes deputy editor of the Evening Press and head of content at The Northern Echo, Darlington .  She began her career as a trainee journalist at the Evening Gazette, Middlesbrough.

Brien Beharrell is editorial director of the Newbury Weekly News (The Newspaper Society’s UK Weekly Paid-For Newspaper of the Year 2005) and a number of additional niche market publications and magazines. She launched the company’s daily news website – www.newburytoday.co.uk – in May 2005 and expanded this to include daily video news bulletins produced from the Newbury newsroom in May 2006. newburytoday was this year named the Best Website Produced by a Weekly Newspaper in the UK by The Newspaper Society.

 

Brien joined the Newbury Weekly News Group as a trainee reporter in 1975. She was promoted to deputy editor in 1984.  She edited the newspaper in the immediate aftermath of the Hungerford Tragedy, (a massacre in which 16 people were shot dead), in 1987. Brien was appointed group editor in 1997 and joined the board of Newbury Weekly News (Printers) Limited as editorial director in 2003.

Joanne Butcher joined the NCTJ in June 2003 as chief executive.

 

Joanne began her career in the regional press after graduating from the University of Exeter in 1987 with an honours degree in history. She joined the Newspaper Society’s marketing department and then moved into training, as senior training officer and then training manager.

 

She completed postgraduate qualifications in human resource management before joining the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) in 1995.  Joanne was director of the Periodicals Training Council (PTC) for five years.

 

For two years she combined her role at the PTC with her work to set up the Publishing National Training Organisation. Joanne was chief executive of this.

 

Joanne is a frequent guest lecturer, presenter and awards judge on publishing media training and development issues for universities and colleges, and industry conferences and awards. Joanne is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and a member of the Institute of Personnel and Development. She promotes the Investors in People Standard and has campaigned to improve work experience placements in publishing.  Joanne was nominated to attend the 2001 and 2002 Women of the Year Awards.

Sue Campbell is executive director of customer relations at Darlington College. She was a journalist for 25 years, working in the UK and Hong Kong, before becoming head of journalism for five years at Darlington College.

 

Following a career that took her from the Darlington & Stockton Times to the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, Sue returned to the UK in 1989.

 

She took up a post as a journalism lecturer at the college and went on to run its international journalism course for five years before becoming head of school for journalism and media.  She subsequently became director of external relations.

Edmund is editor-in-chief of Independent News and Media in Northern Ireland, publishers of the Belfast Telegraph.

He was editor of the paper from 1993 until 2005 and had previously been launch editor of the sister paper, Sunday Life. He joined the Belfast Telegraph in 1966 as a graduate trainee reporter and after spells as reporter, features writer and leader writer, was appointed deputy editor in 1974.

A former president of the Society of Editors, Ed was the first editor from to serve on the Press Complaints Commission. He is a member of the Newspaper Society Political, Editorial and Regulatory Affairs Committee and also of the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee. He was awarded the OBE in June 2006 for services to journalism.

Chris Elliott was appointed The Guardian’s managing editor in 1999.  Starting his journalistic career in local newspapers, Chris has worked as home affairs correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph, chief reporter for the Sunday Correspondent and assistant news editor for the Times. 

In 1995, he joined The Guardian’s newsdesk and was part of the team that won the UKPG Team Reporting Award for the Jonathan Aitken investigation.

Chris has chaired the NCTJ’s accreditation review committee, and sits on the board of the International News Safety Institute (INSI), the Nomination Committee of the Reuters Founders Share Company, and is a trustee of Concern UK .

His areas of special interest are diversity, training, media law, crime and terrorism.

Jan Lever is managing director of Newsquest's Blackburn, Bolton and Kendal operations. Titles published by those centres include regional dailies, the Lancashire Telegraph and the Bolton News, and weeklies the Bury Times and The Westmoreland Gazette.

Jan began her career by training as a journalist with Thomson Regional Newspapers at Cardiff, and then worked at Lancashire and Cheshire County Newspapers on titles across Cheshire.

After a spell in public relations she moved back into newspapers with the Messenger Group based at Sale and Stockport, first as editor and then eventually as editorial director.

She moved to Warrington in 1997 as editor of the Warrington Guardian and editorial director of Guardian Series Newspapers.

 

Donald Martin is editor of the Evening Times in Glasgow.

 

He was previously editor of the Evening Express in Aberdeen, a post he held for eight years.

Before joining the Evening Express, Donald had been editor of the North West Evening Mail, deputy editor of the Cambridge Evening News, chief sub and production editor at the Reading Evening Post and group editor at Thames Valley Free Newspapers.

 

He won his first editorship at the age of 24, at the free weekly Edinburgh and Lothians Post

 

Alison Moore is director of finance and company secretary at the Newspaper Licensing Agency. This is owned by the newspaper groups and is responsible for licensing the reproduction of newspaper content.

The agency is a strong supporter of the Journalism Diversity Fund, helping to set it up in 2005, and it has pledged a further £300,000 over the next three years.

Before joining the NLA, Alison, a chartered accountant, spent 15 years in accountancy practice - latterly with the top ten firm Baker Tilly, where she worked in corporate finance, corporate compliance and practice management.