Mary Ann Sieghart

Mary Ann Corinna Howard Sieghart (born 6 August 1961)

She was appointed a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, for the academic year 2018–19, where she researched The Authority Gap. She has since been an Associate Member of Nuffield College, Oxford (2019–20) and a Senior Academic Visitor at Oriel College, Oxford (2020-21). She is now a visiting professor at King's College London.

Early life Sieghart was born in Hammersmith, London in 1961, the daughter of Paul Sieghart, a Vienna-born human rights lawyer, campaigner, broadcaster and author, and Felicity Ann Olga Howard Sieghart (née Baer), chairman of the National Association for Gifted Children, magistrate and later managing director of the Aldeburgh Cinema. Her father, whose parents divorced when he was two, was raised Catholic as his maternal grandfather Rudolf Sieghart (né Singer) had converted from Judaism. This did not prevent them from being persecuted by the Nazis, thus he and his mother fled to Switzerland and then England. She won a scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford, when she was 16, and graduated with a first-class degree in Philosophy, politics and economics in 1982.

Career

Sieghart's abilities were admired by Bill Deedes. Deedes hired her to work at The Daily Telegraph during the 1980 university summer vacation, where she spent time sub-editing, working on the "Peterborough" column and on features. She returned for subsequent vacations and again took on various roles, including writing some leaders. Deedes notes that "Let loose on the leader page, Mary Ann wove a sometimes startling liberal thread through the Daily Telegraph's blue tapestry." He offered her a job on graduation but simultaneously advised her to apply elsewhere because the Daily Telegraph was in financial trouble.

After Oxford, Sieghart joined the Financial Times, where she became Eurobond Correspondent and then a Lex columnist. She spent a summer in 1984 working for The Washington Post, as the Laurence Stern Fellow. From the FT, she was recruited to be City Editor of Today newspaper at its launch in 1986. When it was taken over by Tiny Rowland, she moved to The Economist to be Political Correspondent. She also presented The World This Week on Channel 4.

In 1988, she joined The Times, as editor of the comment pages. During her time there, she was also Arts Editor, Chief Political leader-writer and acting editor of the paper on Mondays. In 1995, she chaired the revival of The Brains Trust on BBC2.

In 2003, Bill Hagerty, editor of the British Journalism Review, described Sieghart as "very talented" but criticised her assumption that broadsheet journalism in newspapers such as The Times was intrinsically better or more effective than tabloid journalism. In 2007, she left The Times to pursue a portfolio career. From 2010 to 2012, she wrote the main opinion column in The Independent on Mondays.

Sieghart is a regular broadcaster. She was an occasional presenter of Start the Week on Radio 4 and presented Newshour on the BBC World Service from 2008 to 2010: she has also presented Analysis, Fallout, Profile, One to One and Beyond Westminster on Radio 4. She has often appeared on programmes such as Question Time, Any Questions, Newsnight, Today, The World Tonight and Woman's Hour. She was a regular co-presenter of Start the Week during the time Melvyn Bragg was the programme's main presenter and has been a guest presenter of The Week in Westminster and Dispatch Box.

Other activities

Sieghart is Founding Partner of The Authority Gap Consultancy, Visiting Professor at King's College London, Non-Executive Director of the Guardian Media Group, and Senior Independent Director of Pantheon International. She was Chair of Judges of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022. Until recently, she was chair of the Social Market Foundation, and also sat on the boards of the Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust, DLN Digital Ltd, the Council of Tate Modern and the Content Board of Ofcom. She is senior trustee of the Kennedy Memorial Trust, trustee of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and has previously served as a trustee of the Radcliffe Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, steering committee member of the No Campaign and New Europe, member of the Advisory Board of the Social Studies Faculty at Oxford University and other voluntary posts.

Sieghart suffers from prosopagnosia, which makes it difficult to recognize familiar faces. Her mother, husband, and one of her children suffer from the same condition.