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Name: Michael Buerk
Field:
Journalist
Biography: Michael Buerk came to the BBC after an early career in newspapers, including the Daily Mail. He spent over 20 years as a foreign correspondent, and looks back on those years as among the best of his career.
"I still think being a foreign correspondent is the best job there is, because of the sense of witnessing history," he told the Times newspaper.
He reported from more than 50 countries, including a four-year stint in South Africa, until he was asked to leave the country because of his uncompromising reporting. He is still most remembered for his reporting of the famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s for which he was praised by colleagues and the public.
By the 1990s he was turning his hand to presenting, and had become one of the main anchors for the BBC Nine O'Clock News. He also began presenting non-news programmes such as BBC1's 999, and on BBC Radio 4, the ethical debating programme, The Moral Maze.
He announced his retirement from news presenting at the end of 2002, although he will continue presenting other programmes and making one-off films.
Michael Buerk lives with his wife, and has twin sons, who both now work as journalists.
Michael is available for after dinner and corporate events.
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