Bill Neely (born 21 May 1959) is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. He was the Chief Global Correspondent for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's ...

, from 2014-2021. He has been a broadcaster since 1981. Neely spent 25 years at

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since con ...

before retiring from NBC in April 2021.

Early life and education

Neely was born in

Glengormley Glengormley () is the name of a townland (of 215 acres) and electoral ward in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Glengormley is within the urban area of Newtownabbey and the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It is also situated in t ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, Northern Ireland, in 1959 and graduated with joint honours in Modern History and English from

Queen's University of Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

. He was named the Queen's University Graduate of the Year in 2021 for his work as a broadcaster.

Career

Bill began his career with

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland ( ga, BBC Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ''BBC Norlin Airlan'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ire ...

in 1981, at the height of the Republican hunger strikes. He covered the violence in Northern Ireland for six years before joining BBC television's news and current affairs department in London in 1987. After a period with Sky News, when he helped launch the channel, Neely joined

in June 1989. He has covered many of the major world news events of the last quarter-century, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, which he describes as "the best story I ever covered, bar none", the break-up of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, the first and second Gulf Wars, both attacks on New York's

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

(1993 and 2001), the mass killings in Darfur, the death of Pope John Paul II, the siege of

Beslan Beslan (russian: Бесла́н; os, Беслӕн, ''Beslæn'', ) is a town and the administrative center of Pravoberezhny District of the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, Russia, located about north of the republic's capital Vladikavkaz, ...

, and numerous natural disasters, including around a dozen earthquakes. He has won four BAFTA awards for news coverage, including an unprecedented three consecutive awards (2009-11), an Emmy award, a Monte Carlo Golden Nymph award, a Peabody prize, an Edward R. Murrow award and numerous other nominations and awards for international news reporting over the past three decades, including eight Emmy nominations for

. He has won four Royal Television Society awards, including the International News Award for coverage of the Haiti earthquake. He was voted Broadcasting Journalist of the Year in the 2011 London Press Club Awards. Neely was Washington correspondent and US Bureau Chief for six years (1991–97), covering two Presidential elections, the

Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

and

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, an ...

, the OJ Simpson trial, the

Waco siege The Waco siege, also known as the Waco massacre, was the law enforcement siege of the compound that belonged to the religious sect Branch Davidians. It was carried out by the U.S. federal government, Texas state law enforcement, and the U.S ...

as well as many major stories across North and South America and the Caribbean. From 1997–2002 he was Europe Correspondent, covering the death of Diana, Princess of Wales for which he was part of the team nominated for a BAFTA award; the crash of Concorde and the wars in

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Eur ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

. ITN received the Golden Nymph from the Monte Carlo Television Festival, Europe's top award for television journalism, for his work in

. He has also reported regularly from the Middle East, the United States and Northern Ireland. For many years Neely was a presenter on

programmes including News at Ten & the ITV Evening News. Neely has covered five US Presidential election campaigns since 1992. In addition, he has covered elections in Russia, Germany, France, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Jamaica, Iran, and Israel, and has interviewed numerous presidents, Prime Ministers and Heads of State. His reports from the deadly earthquake in China in 2008 won him the 2009 International

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for News and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Television News. Earlier in 2008 he reported from the

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and o ...

– 600 miles from the South Pole – on global warming. He covered the 2005 Pakistan earthquake for which ITV News won a Royal Television Society award and, in the same year, the devastating floods in New Orleans and the Asian tsunami. He was nominated for a BAFTA for coverage of the Beslan siege. From 2006 he returned regularly to

Helmand Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering area. The province contains 13 ...

and

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the ca ...

Provinces,

to report on the war. He was also part of the ITV News team whose reports from the Asian tsunami won the 2005 BAFTA award for news ("Seven Days That Shook The World"). In 2010, he reported on the

earthquake in Haiti Some of the earthquakes in Haiti have been very destructive to the country. The widespread damage and high-number of casualties of events in 2010 and 2021 can be partially blamed on the fact that most of the population in Haiti resides in struct ...

, for which he won the 2010 BAFTA (

British Academy of Film and Television Arts British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

) award for the best news coverage. He covered the campaign of

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of the ...

in the

1997 United Kingdom general election The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179 seat majority. T ...

and

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

in the 2010 general election. He also reported on the

killing of Osama bin Laden On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was shot several times and killed at his compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Naval ...

, the Libyan, Egyptian, and Syrian revolutions, the Iranian elections and protests of 2008, the terrorist attack in Mumbai, and the 2008 Presidential election in the US. He reported regularly on the "

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econom ...

", firstly from Egypt, then Libya, and during more than a dozen visits to Syria; frontline dispatches that have been broadcast around the world. He interviewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2016. In October 2013, he was voted one of the 100 most influential journalists in the world covering violence. He won the 2011 BAFTA (

) for his reporting of the

killings in Cumbria in July 2010 The Cumbria shootings was a shooting spree which occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, taxi driver Derrick Bird, killed twelve people and injured eleven others in Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre a ...

; his third BAFTA success in three years. He was twice nominated as Broadcasting Journalist of the Year by the

London Press Club The Press Club was established in 1882 as a London gentlemen's club. For much of its history, it occupied premises in Wine Office Court, near Fleet Street. It still exists today, as a society for journalists, but no longer offers club facilities, ...

, winning the award in 2011. In 2011, Neely took part in a documentary called ''As Others See Us'' which looked back on his reporting of

The Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

. He highlighted reporting on the Droppin Well bombing in Ballykelly. He was joined by Peter Taylor,

Kate Adie Kathryn Adie (born 19 September 1945) is an English journalist. She was Chief News Correspondent for BBC News between 1989 and 2003, during which time she reported from war zones around the world. She retired from the BBC in early 2003 and ...

and

Martin Bell Martin Bell, (born 31 August 1938) is a British UNICEF ( UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as ...

. In 2013 he was nominated for the

Bayeux War Correspondents Award The Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents (French: Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie des correspondants de guerre), previously the Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents, is an annual prize awarded since 1994, by the city of Bay ...

and the

Golden Nymph Award The Golden Nymph Award(s) are the prizes awarded to the winners of the Official Competition of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival. History Prince Rainier III of Monaco created the Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo in 1961 to "encourage ...

at Monte Carlo for his work in Syria. On 25 November 2013, it was announced that Neely would be joining

. His final story for ITV News was on the

death of Nelson Mandela Death is the Irreversible process, irreversible cessation of all biological process, biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whol ...

. He joined

on 20 January 2014. In 2014, Neely reported on the

Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indig ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

wars, the Russian invasion of Crimea, the mystery of the missing Malaysian plane MH370, the World Cup in Brazil and the war in Gaza. With NBC News, Neely was part of the team that won a prestigious

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

for "Continuing Coverage of ISIS" in 2014. Neely reported less than seventy yards from the ISIS front line in Northern Iraq. In 2015 and 2016 he reported on the terrorist massacres in Paris, Nice, and Brussels, two plane crashes in Egypt, the

GermanWings plane crash Germanwings Flight 9525 PDF of the English translation of the final report and thoriginal French version(which the BEA notes on PDF p. 2/110 of the English PDF is the primary work of reference) was a scheduled international passenger flight fr ...

in France and Europe's migration crisis. He was part of the Nightly News team that won the Edward R. Murrow Award for reports after the

Paris attacks of January 2015 Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Sin ...

. He interviewed President Assad of Syria in July 2016 and covered the fall of Aleppo from the city in December 2016. He has interviewed senior officials from

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

during four trips to the country in 2016–2017 and was told by officials that he was the first Western journalist in 70 years to visit a section of N. Korea's border with China. Neely received eight Emmy nominations at NBC, including for work on the Brussels terror attacks in 2016 and in the Best Interview category for his exclusive interview with Syria's President Assad. Neely reported on the Covid crisis of 2020-21 from Hong Kong, Italy, Sweden, Austria, London, and Brazil. NBC paid tribute to him in broadcasts on the ''Today'' show and ''Nightly News'' on his final day, 2 April 2021.

Marriage and family

Neely and his wife, Marion, live in Richmond, London and have two daughters. Bill Neely runs in the Ranelagh Harriers running club and has completed eleven London marathons, most recently in 2021 with a time of 3.12.25 and with a best time of 3.09.48 in the 2011 event. He also competes in Triathlons and regularly takes part in

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of London's Royal Parks, and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer pa ...

Parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of 5K run, events for walkers, runners and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across six continents. Junior Parkrun (stylised as junior p ...

. He is the patron of the heart charity

CRY Crying is the dropping of tears (or welling of tears in the eyes) in response to an emotional state, or pain. Emotions that can lead to crying include sadness, anger, and even happiness. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secreto ...

Cardiac Risk in the Young Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) is a humanitarian charitable organisation helping to raise awareness of young sudden cardiac death (YSCD, SCD), including sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS, SDS). CRY was established in May 1995 by Alison C ...

and has raised more than £60,000 for them to tackle undiagnosed heart defects in young people. He has been an active supporter of

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

since 1967.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neely, Bill 1959 births ITN newsreaders and journalists Living people Journalists from Belfast People educated at St Malachy's College NBC News people British war correspondents Alumni of Queen's University Belfast