Julie Etchingham
Senior leaders are asked to make decisions inside a political cycle that no longer obeys a calendar. Elections, regulatory pivots and reputational crises now move on the same news beat as earnings, and the room running the response often lacks a working read of how the story will land. The gap is not analysis after the fact, it is judgement in the moment.
Julie Etchingham is the anchor of ITV News at Ten and the moderator of every ITV general election leaders’ debate since 2015, who chairs and interviews on stage for organisations that need political fluency in the room.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Julie Etchingham
- She has run the room when the stakes were national. Moderating the head-to-head ITV debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer on 4 June 2024, and every ITV leaders’ debate since 2015, is the reference point clients book against when they need a chair who can hold senior figures to a question.
- She is a working anchor of ITV News at Ten, not a former one. The political, regulatory and geopolitical stories that affect a board agenda are the stories she is reading, writing and presenting that evening.
- She brings a documented record on hard reporting. Her ITV Tonight and Exposure work on modern slavery, including Britain’s Secret Slaves filmed in the UK, Nigeria and Italy, won her access to the Vatican and to Pope Francis, whom she was the first British broadcast journalist to interview.
- She carries the rare credential of being the first woman to win the RTS Television Journalism Presenter of the Year, an award she has now won twice, alongside London Press Club Broadcast Journalist of the Year.
Biography highlights
- Anchor of ITV News at Ten since January 2008, alongside the relaunch with Sir Trevor McDonald.
- Moderator of the ITV Leaders’ Debate at the 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2024 UK general elections, including the Sunak v Starmer head-to-head on 4 June 2024.
- Presenter of ITV’s Tonight current affairs strand from 2010 to 2022; reporter for ITV’s investigative strand Exposure, including Britain’s Secret Slaves on modern slavery.
- Royal Television Society Television Journalism Presenter of the Year in 2010 (first woman to win) and 2016; London Press Club Broadcast Journalist of the Year, 2016.
- President of the Women of the Year Lunch and Awards since 2018; Pro-Chancellor of Birmingham Newman University from October 2023.
- Cambridge graduate (Newnham College, English); earlier career at BBC (Newsround, Midlands Today, BBC Breakfast News) and Sky News, where she anchored coverage of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and the 7/7 London attacks.
Biography
The ITV debate studio on 4 June 2024 was the only place a UK prime minister and the leader of the opposition were going to share a stage in front of voters that election. Julie Etchingham chaired the hour live. She had done the same job at every ITV leaders’ debate since 2015, when she became the first woman to moderate a UK general election debate, and again in 2017, 2019 and across the 2022 Conservative leadership contest.
That body of work sits on top of a journalism career. Etchingham has anchored ITV News at Ten since the programme’s relaunch with Sir Trevor McDonald in January 2008, and earlier presented Sky News through major breaking stories, including live coverage from Thailand after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and on air as the 7/7 attacks unfolded in London. From 2010 to 2022 she presented ITV’s Tonight current affairs programme, with reporting for the Exposure investigative strand including Britain’s Secret Slaves, filmed across the UK, Nigeria and Italy on modern slavery.
The recognition is on the record. The Royal Television Society named her Television Journalism Presenter of the Year in 2010, the first woman to win the award, and again in 2016. The London Press Club named her Broadcast Journalist of the Year the same year. She was the first British broadcast journalist to interview Pope Francis, and has since moderated conferences at the Vatican on modern slavery under his patronage.
For corporate audiences, the offer is practical. She moderates leadership conferences, chairs panels and runs on-stage interviews with the same craft she uses in a debate studio, with a working knowledge of UK politics, elections and the media environment around them. The president’s chair at the Women of the Year Lunch since 2018 and the Pro-Chancellorship of Birmingham Newman University from October 2023 are the institutional version of that same role.
Key speaking topics
- UK politics and general elections
- Conference moderation and on-stage interviewing
- Leadership communication under public scrutiny
- Media, public trust and the information environment
- Modern slavery and human rights reporting
- Awards hosting and high-profile event chairing
Ideal for
- Annual leadership conferences and partner summits needing a chair who can run a serious agenda with senior political or business figures on stage.
- Investor days, AGMs and policy forums where the on-stage interview format requires a journalist who knows the brief.
- Awards dinners and major institutional events where the host carries credibility with the audience.
- Boards and executive committees using a private session to pressure-test communications around a political or regulatory moment.
Audience outcomes
- A working read on the UK political cycle and the elections, regulatory shifts and media stories most likely to land on the agenda.
- A sharper sense of how leaders are scrutinised in front of a national audience, drawn from years of moderating debates with prime ministers and party leaders.
- A different quality of on-stage conversation when Etchingham is chairing: speakers pushed past talking points without losing the room.
- Specific reference points from front-line news anchoring and investigative work used to illustrate rather than decorate the argument.