Biographies

Director, College of Journalism

Vin Ray is the first Director of the BBC College of Journalism and a member of the BBC's Journalism Board.

Vin joined the BBC on CEEFAX in 1987 and moved on to work as a producer on the Nine O'Clock News under the editorship of Mark Thompson.

As a foreign field producer, Vin worked on many of the big stories of the early 1990s, including the first Gulf War, the Gorbachev coup and the Bosnian war.

In the UK, he was in charge of the field operation for the resignation of Margaret Thatcher, as well as covering numerous IRA bombings.

He became TV Foreign Editor in 1993 and two years later became the bimedia Foreign Editor across domestic TV and radio.

In 1996 he was asked to merge the Newsgathering operations of the BBC World Service and the domestic News and Current Affairs, becoming World News Editor, the first person to take charge of the BBC's entire foreign newsgathering operations.

Influenced by the deaths and injuries of colleagues – he was with Martin Bell in Sarajevo when he was injured – Vin was instrumental in helping introduce safety equipment, courses and counselling services across the industry.

Vin also had responsibility for recruiting and coaching on-air talent for BBC News and gave many of the BBC's best known correspondents their first jobs in foreign news. He was described as a "revered teacher" by Andrew Marr who, along with many others, he trained and coached through his transition to broadcasting.

Vin is also the author of two books, The Reporter's Friend and The Television News Handbook.