James Harding

James Paul Harding (born 15 September 1969) is a British journalist, and a former Director of BBC News who was in the post from August 2013 until 1 January 2018. He is the co-founder of Tortoise Media. In December 2007, he was appointed as editor of The Times newspaper, the youngest person to assume the post, following Robert Thomson's appointment as publisher of the Wall Street Journal. He left The Times in December 2012, and was succeeded by John Witherow as acting editor. Early life and career Harding was raised in north-west London, the grandson of a German Jewish refugee. He was educated at two independent schools for boys: at The Hall School in Hampstead in North West London and St. Paul's School in Barnes, near Hammersmith in London, followed by Trinity College, Cambridge (where he attained a First Class degree in history) and City University. Harding also spent a year studying at Davidson College in the United States. Harding won a Daiwa Scholarship in 1991, where he undertook intensive Japanese language study and worked as a speechwriter to Koichi Kato, who was Chief Secretary to the Cabinet of Japan, and for the Japan unit of the European Commission. Before entering the media, he studied Japanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies.