Rory Cellan-Jones
In his 40 years at the BBC Rory Cellan-Jones reported on banking scandals, the woes of iconic business institutions like Marks & Spencer, the rise, fall and rise again of internet businesses and the impact of new technology on the lives of us all. As Technology Correspondent Rory traced the emergence of the new industrial giants like Facebook and Google using his clear and insightful analysis to translate geek speak to the masses on radio, on television and, of course, on social media.
Rory left the BBC in 2021 to become Senior Advisor with business services firm FTI Consulting. In 2022 he also took up the post of Senior media and Strategy Consultant with Brands2Life.
Career
Rory joined the BBC in 1981 as a researcher on Look North before moving to London to work in the newsroom and on Newsnight. His first on-screen role was as a reporter for Wales Today followed by a stint on Breakfast Time.
He then moved into business coverage working across BBC TV and radio networks including The Money programme, Newsnight, the Today programme and major news bulletins. In 2000 his time as BBC Internet Correspondent was cut short by the dot com crash and he returned to his role as Business and Industry Correspondent.
From 2007 Rory was Technology Correspondent charged with expanding the BBC’s coverage of the impact of the internet on business and society.. Rory also presented the weekly programme Tech Tent on BBC World Service and blogged regularly as dot.Rory.
Books
The internet stock market crash of 2000 inspired Rory’s first book dot.bomb: The Rise & Fall of Dot.Com Britain, analysing the. Boom, the bust and the long-term transformation the internet has wrought on British business.
On his 2012 audio book The Secret History of Social Networking, Rory traces the roots of a very modern phenomena from the counterculture of the 1970’s through to the behemoth that is Facebook.
His publication, Always On: Hope and fear in the social smartphone era, examines the transformation of society by hyperconnectivity and analyses the impact on everything from democracy to health.
Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC was published in 2023 and his most recent publication in October 2024, Sophie from Romania: A Year of Love and Hope with a Rescue Dog, is the story of rescue dog #SophieFromRomania.
Awards
In May 2022 Rory received an honorary degree from the University of York for his outstanding contribution to society.
In April 2022 Rory was made an Honorary Fellow of The National Museum of Computing in recognition of his ‘vast impact on the improvement of public knowledge and understanding in the realm of culture, history, science, technology and computing practice.’
Rory has also been shortlisted for the Internet Service Providers Association Internet Hero award. In 2013 readers of T3 magazine voted Rory ‘Gadget Personality of the Year’.
Personal Life
Rory lives in West Ealing with his wife and has two sons. In May 2021 he announced via Twitter that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease saying ‘Im getting good treatment and the symptoms are mild right now so I’m carrying on as normal. Onwards and upwards!’
