So far:
Summer of 2020:
Named a Fellow of the Centre for the Purpose of the Corporation, a bold initiative of Navigator, Canada’s leading high-stakes public strategy and communications firm. The Centre will help businesses and organizations redefine and strengthen the scope of their purpose and the contributions they make more broadly to society.
Spring of 2019:
… awarded an Honourary Doctorate in Literature by Trent University “for his innovative contributions as a journalist, editor and human rights advocate.”
… voted and appointed a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. Took a management role in an Antarctic glacier expedition in March.
Late 1960s/early 70s: Left school at 16 to work on a local newspaper in the northwest of England, a town called Morecambe. The paper was called The Visitor: “the midweek paper with the weekend feeling, like a friend dropping in every Wednesday.” Accuracy basics beaten in at early age. Left for London aged 19. News reporter for the South London Press, U.K.’s largest twice-weekly paper. Sports reporting at weekends, covered Millwall home-and-away. Fans’ motto: “Nobody likes us and we don’t care.” Still true today. Worked around Fleet Street two or three nights a week, London Evening News, Daily Mail, The Sun. Had a part-time newsroom job on Saturdays for the Sunday Express.
Mid-1970s: Arrived in Canada on vacation. Visited the Toronto Star, offered a job. Highlight: the election of the Parti Quebecois in 1976. Intrigued by Canadian politics, left for the Montreal Gazette in 1977.
Late 70/80s: Had three children, learned French. Launched the Gazette’s separate Sunday edition (back then Canadian papers mostly didn’t publish Sunday, Saturday was the big day of the week, and still is). Became Managing Editor of the Gazette.
The 90s: Moved to big sky country, Edmonton, Alberta, experiencing western Canada. Edmonton Journal Managing Editor. Three years later drove the family through the Rockies to become Editor of The Province in Vancouver. Flew back-and-forth from Vancouver to Toronto as a founding editor to launch the National Post. Was the last Editor of the Financial Post as the company merged the two papers. At the same time, continued to edit the Province in Vancouver by fax from Toronto. Email would have been easier but we didn’t have it yet.
Eventually returned full-time to Vancouver.
2000 onwards: A decade in America, first as Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago Sun-Times, then Editor-in-Chief of the New York Daily News. Back to Toronto – a closing of the Canadian circle — for 9 years serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Toronto Star.
Joined the Board of Journalists for Human Rights 2010. Have been board Chairman for two years. Travelling and teaching and coaching in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana. Have also taught for other journo-NGOs in Uganda and Myamar, and most recently this year in India and Bangladesh.
Reported/written/filmed various foreign stories from these countries, plus Afghanistan.
Here’s an African example:
http://projects.thestar.com/congo-refugees-violence/index.html
Onward: Looking to spend the next few years helping journalists, newsrooms large and small and the businesses that underpin them first survive, and then prosper, in the digital age. And working with humanitarian projects and human rights reporting.
Citizen of Canada, USA, UK
Davis, Cooke Media 