Anastasia Graham-Yooll

Why organisations work with Anastasia Graham-Yooll

• She has reported from inside a major conflict as part of the CNN team that won the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage of the war in Ukraine. Few moderators on a geopolitics panel have stood that close to the story.
• Her EBRD advisory work on sustainable agriculture and food security gives her credible technical ground for AgriTech, climate and supply chain panels, not just headline framing.
• Twenty years of editorial work across CNN International, Bloomberg TV and Al Jazeera English means she can shape a programme arc, brief speakers in advance and keep a session on the record without drift.
• As a Ukrainian journalist based in London, she carries a perspective on the fracturing rules-based order that few UK-based moderators can match in primary-source terms.
• She brings a working position on press freedom, journalist mental health and neurodiversity in newsrooms to media, culture and people-focused programmes.

Biography highlights

• Co-recipient of the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage of the war in Ukraine as part of the CNN team.
• More than two decades of broadcast and production experience across CNN International, CNN en Espanol, Bloomberg TV and Al Jazeera English.
• Founder and Executive Director of HGY Media Ltd, a London-based documentary production and media consultancy firm.
• Former media consultant to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, working on communications for the bank’s agribusiness sector strategy.
• Moderator of panels on AgriTech, diplomacy and innovation for global summits, policy forums and academic institutions.
• Public advocate for press freedom, ethical storytelling, journalist mental health and neurodiversity in newsrooms.

Biography

A panel on Ukraine, food security or AgriTech is only as useful as the moderator who can hold three commercial and political agendas in the same conversation without flattening them. That is the editorial discipline Graham-Yooll has built over two decades of broadcast journalism, and it is what she brings to a chair.

She was part of the CNN team that won the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage of the war in Ukraine, contributing to the network’s real-time global coverage during the earliest days of the Russian invasion. Her career spans CNN International, CNN en Espanol, Bloomberg TV and Al Jazeera English, with reporting from conflict zones and across international affairs.

Outside the newsroom, Graham-Yooll has advised the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on communications around its agribusiness sector strategy, sustainable agriculture and food security. Through HGY Media Ltd, the production and consultancy firm she founded, she works on documentary projects and purpose-driven campaigns covering human rights, conflict communication and freedom of expression.

She also speaks on the working conditions inside modern newsrooms, including the mental health pressures of conflict coverage and the case for neurodiversity in editorial teams. That secondary track gives her relevance on media, culture and people programmes where the buyer wants substance rather than presenter polish.

Key speaking topics

• Geopolitics and conflict communication
• Press freedom and ethical storytelling
• AgriTech, food security and sustainable agriculture
• Editorial leadership and narrative strategy
• Neurodiversity in the newsroom
• Mental health in journalism
• Media’s role in societal resilience

Ideal for

• Conference organisers seeking a panel chair for geopolitics, defence policy or Ukraine-focused programmes
• Sustainability, AgriTech and food security summits requiring editorial moderation across public and private sector voices
• Corporate communications and policy forums on press freedom, disinformation and crisis communications
• Media, HR and culture programmes on newsroom mental health and neurodiversity

Audience outcomes

• A panel session that stays editorially controlled, on record and on time, with each speaker challenged on substance
• Geopolitical context on Ukraine, the war and the wider European security picture from a journalist with frontline reporting credit
• A working frame for how AgriTech and food security sit inside the geopolitical and climate agenda, not as a separate vertical
• A direct view of what ethical storytelling and press freedom mean for organisations that operate in politically volatile markets
• Practical exposure to the case for neurodiversity and mental health support in high-pressure editorial and communications teams