Rory Cellan Jones

Early life and education

Rory Cellan-Jones was born in London in 1958. Both his father James Cellan Jones and his half-brother Simon Cellan Jones are film and television directors, although Rory was born out of wedlock and was unacquainted with them until adulthood.

Cellan-Jones was educated at Dulwich College, an independent school for boys in Dulwich in south London, from 1967–76. He attended Jesus College, Cambridge University, obtaining a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages in 1981, and automatic MA three years later.

Career

Starting his BBC career as a researcher on the Leeds edition of Look North, he then worked in the London TV newsroom for three years before getting his first on-screen role at BBC Wales. He later transferred to London and became the business and economics correspondent, appearing on The Money Programme between 1990 and 1992. After the dot com crash of 2000, he wrote the book Dot.bomb. He has covered issues such as Black Wednesday, the BCCI scandal and Marks and Spencer's competition troubles. He has also evaluated the growth of websites and internet companies including the rise of Google and Wikipedia and online retailing. Since January 2007, he has been the BBC's Technology Correspondent with the job of expanding the BBC's coverage of new media and telecoms, and the cultural impact of the Internet.

In April 2007 he launched "Stop the NUJ boycott", "a campaign for a ballot of NUJ members about the union's policy on a boycott of Israeli goods".

Personal life

He is married to Diane Coyle, a former Vice Chairman of the BBC Trust, a former adviser to HM Treasury, and the author of the book Sex, Drugs and Economics.