Ben Thompson

Ben Thompson was studying at university when he began his BBC career at Radio Wales on 2001 producing the network’s morning news programme, Good Morning Wales. Subsequently selected in a BBC Trainee Scheme  he completed a degree in International Business and French at Cardiff University, and a postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism.

He then moved to London to start work in the Business & Economics Unit of BBC News. As business producer for the rolling news service BBC News 24 and the BBC’s international news channel, BBC World he learned how to explain how global trade was reshaping business and the impact of big business on our everyday lives.

Ben later joined BBC Breakfast as a producer, swapping international time zones for night shifts and early mornings to explain how money, savings, pensions and pay affect the money in our pockets and our own personal finances.

Ben Thompson started off in front of the camera as the BBC’s Middle East Business Correspondent

Based in Dubai in the UAE, Ben spent three years travelling the length and breadth of the region including Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.  He covered particularly challenging stories including the Dubai Financial Crisis. He also reported from Egypt and Tunisia during the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings and the growing tensions in Syria.

Returning to the UK to become the Business Presenter for the BBC News Channel he arrived back home at a particularly busy time for the global economy, the financial crisis dominated the headlines.  This role entailed ensuring viewers were kept up to date with the latest business and market news and the economic fallout of the global debt crisis. He also helped make sense of complex moves in global markets and the actions of bankers and politicians around the world as they tried to contain the growing crisis.

Soon New York beckoned and Ben Thompson became the BBC’s North America Business Correspondent.

Regular on Wall Street he reported live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, before meeting business leaders, technology entrepreneurs and international investors in one of the world’s financial capitals. With the financial crisis still dominating the headlines, it was again a particularly volatile period for global stock markets.

It was whilst he was in New York that Ben covered Hurricane Sandy as it hit causing half a million New York residents to be evacuated.  Instead of fleeing with everyone else Ben went straight to the BBC HQ so he could keep global viewers up to date. For two days he reported almost continuously for BBC TV and radio (whilst sleeping in the office) and spent a number of days without power and water at his apartment in the city. He also covered the US Presidential Elections and the deadlock in American politics which nearly pushed the US economy into bankruptcy.