Andrew Stephen Bower Knight (born 1 November 1939 in England) is an English journalist, editor, and

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...

Early life

Andrew Knight was born on 1 November 1939 to

Group Captain Group captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force, where it originated, as well as the air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. It is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank i ...

M. W. B. Knight DFC and his wife S. E. F. Knight. Group Captain Knight was a decorated officer with the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

, noted for founding Squadron 485, the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Squadron. He was educated at the Roman Catholic school

Ampleforth College Ampleforth College is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in the English public school tradition located in the village of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1802 as a boys' school, it is situated in the groun ...

, where he was appointed

Head boy Head boy and head girl are student leadership roles in schools, representing the school's entire student body. They are normally the most senior prefects in the school. The terms are commonly used in the British education system as well as in Aus ...

, and was awarded an

Exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

( MA,

Modern history The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...

). Knight worked at the City of London merchant bankers J. Henry Schroder Wagg, from 1961 to 1963 and the ''

Investors Chronicle The ''Investors Chronicle'' is a weekly magazine in the United Kingdom for private investors and is published by the ''Financial Times'' Group. The magazine publishes articles about global markets and sectors, and news on corporate actions such ...

'' from 1962 until 1966, when he joined ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' magazine.

Career

Knight was first assigned to ''The Economist''s international business and investment sections. From March 1968 to April 1970, he served in the Washington offices of the paper, before returning to Europe to establish its European section and, in 1973, its offices in Brussels. Knight was named Editor of ''The Economist'' in October 1974. Aged 34, he was the second youngest editor in the magazine's history,2006 Archive – Career section
Ampleforth College web site, "News for Old Amplefordians" and tripled the magazine's circulation during his 11 years at the helm. He remained editor until 1986, and was named International Editor of the Year by ''

World Press Review ''World Press '' (Worldpress.org) is an independent, nonpartisan New York based magazine founded in 1974 and initially published by Stanley Foundation and Teri Schure, with an online edition which was launched in 1997. The headquarters of the ...

'' in June 1981. He organised the takeover of the then floundering Telegraph Group in 1985, including ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' newspaper. Knight approached

Conrad Black Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, businessman, and writer. His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canadi ...

for financing of the takeover, and controversially appointed

Max Hastings Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings (; born 28 December 1945) is a British journalist and military historian, who has worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, editor-in-chief of ''The Daily Telegraph'', and editor of the ''Evening Standard' ...

, a historian and former

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

journalist, as editor of ''

''. Knight was Chief Executive and Editor-in-Chief of the London Daily Telegraph Group from January 1986 until October 1989. In March 1990, Knight joined News International plc as chairman.

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

named Knight as his "backstop and successor" at

, prior to Knight retiring from an executive position in June 1994, after a near-fatal skiing accident. He was appointed a Director of

News Corporation Board of Directors
on 31 January 1991 and became a non-executive director in 1994. In July 2008, it was announced that Knight had resigned from the board of the

Rothschild Investment Trust RIT Capital Partners plc, formerly Rothschild Investment Trust, is a large British investment trust dedicated to investments in quoted securities and quoted special situations. Established in 1961, the company is listed on the London Stock Exchan ...

(RIT), on which he had served since 1996, and had instead taken over as Chairman of J. Rothschild Capital Management Limited, RIT's main operating entity. He is a former member of the Steering Committee of the

Bilderberg Group The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defin ...

. Knight resigned from the board of News Corporation in 2012, and was elected the Chairman of Times Newspapers Holdings Ltd, a post previously held by Rupert Murdoch.

Personal life

In 1966, Knight married

Victoria Brittain Victoria Brittain (born 1942) is a British journalist and author who lived and worked for many years in Africa, the US, and Asia, including 20 years at ''The Guardian'', where she eventually became associate foreign editor. In the 1980s, she wor ...

, by whom he had a son. After a divorce, he married Sanghata Global charitable organisation founder Sabiha Rumani Malik in 1975, with whom he has two daughters, one of whom is designer Amaryllis Knight, and one stepdaughter,

India Knight India Knight (née Gisèle Aertsens; born 14 December 1965) is a British journalist and author. She writes for British newspapers, and has written the books: ''My Life on a Plate'', ''Don't You Want Me?'', ''The Shops'', ''Neris and India's Id ...

. They divorced in 1991. In 2006, Andrew Knight remarried for the second time, his third wife being

Marita Crawley Marita Georgina Knight (''née'' Phillips; formerly Crawley; born 28 May 1954 in London, England) is a British songwriter and author. Her lyrics have been recorded by artists such as Peter Skellern, Demis Roussos, William Lovelady and Art Garfun ...

, who has three children by her first marriage.Who's Who, 2007 edition, p. 1282 col. 2

Positions held

*Chairman, Times Newspaper Holdings Ltd (2012–present) *Chairman, J. Rothschild Capital Management Limited *Member of the Board of

(1991–2012) *non-executive director, Chairman of Compensation Committee and Member of Audit Committee of

(1991–present) *Director and Member of Audit Committee of Reader's Digest Association Inc. (2007–present) *non-executive director of Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust plc (2003–present) *Former non-executive director, Member of Audit Committee, Member of Nominations Committee and Member of Remuneration & Conflicts Committee RIT Capital Partners plc (1996–present) *Chairman, News International plc (1990–94) *CEO, Editor-in-Chief of ''

'' Group (1986–89) *Editor in Chief of ''The Economist'' (1974–86) *Brussels Office of ''The Economist'' (1973–74) *Established the European Section of ''The Economist'' (1970–73) *Washington Office of ''The Economist'' (1968–70) *''

'' (1962–66) * J. Henry Schroder Wagg (1961–63) *Member of the Board of

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

*Member of the Board of

Tandem Computers Tandem Computers, Inc. was the dominant manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems for Automated teller machine, ATM networks, banks, stock exchanges, telephone switching centers, and other similar commercial transaction processing applicati ...

Cultural and educational institutions, charities

*Chairman of Shipston Home Nursing *Chairman of the Harlech Scholars' Trust *Governor of the

Ditchley Foundation The Ditchley Foundation is a foundation that holds conferences, with a primary focus on British-American relations. It is based at Ditchley Park near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. It was established as a privately funded charity in 1958 by philan ...

*Member of the Council of Management of the Ditchley Foundation *Advisory Board of the Centre of Economic Policy Research at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, California *Advisory Council of the Institute of International Studies, Stanford University *Council member of the Brain and Spine Foundation

Former positions

*non-executive director of

Holdings plc and of

Inc. *Former Director of

BSkyB Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

from 1990 to 1994 *Overseer of the

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and ...

, Stanford *Former Chairman of the

Ballet Rambert Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

*Former Trustee of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

*Former Governor of

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

of Science & Technology *Former Council member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs

Chatham House Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is an independent policy institute headquartered in London. Its stated mission is to provide commentary on world events and offer solutions to global challenges. It is ...

*Former Council member of Templeton College,

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

*Former Governor of

Gordonstoun Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland. It is named after the estate owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 17th century; the school now uses this estate as its campus. It is located ...

school,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

*Former Chairman of the Jerwood Charity

Jerwood Foundation The Jerwood Foundation is an independent grant-making foundation in the United Kingdom. In 1999 the Jerwood Foundation established the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, a registered charity under English law. History The Jerwood Foundation was establi ...

*Former Director of the UK charity Mariinsky Theatre Trust (working name of the Anglo-Russian Opera and Ballet Trust)

References

Forbes People WatchU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Archive

External links

CBS News ArticleBusiness Week: Andrew Knight
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Andrew 1939 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford The Economist editors English male journalists English magazine editors English newspaper editors English Roman Catholics Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group News Corporation people People educated at Ampleforth College People associated with Imperial College London Reader's Digest