Bureau of Investigative Journalism announces new appointments

Rachel Oldroyd, editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism sent out the following announcement:

I’m delighted to announce and welcome Tara Lajumoke and Clare Algar as the newest members of the Bureau’s board.

At a time when investigative journalism is needed more than ever, we are continuing to go from strength to strength, evidenced in part by our ability to attract such extraordinary talent to our leadership team.

Tara and Clare join at an exciting time of rapid growth and development for our organisation. Together they bring important skills and experience at both a strategic and management level that will help strengthen the Bureau, particularly in our ambitious plans around sustainability and global impact.

Tara brings a strong background in digital skills and strategy. She heads up the consulting arm of the FT, which supports global organisations to build sustainable digital businesses. Her leadership of FT Strategies follows 15 years at McKinsey where she specialised in digital transformation.

Clare was a litigator in private practice and has held leadership positions in human rights organisations for the past 10 years, most recently at Amnesty. Earlier in her career Clare transformed the small charity Reprieve into a sustainable, thriving organisation, growing the team from 13 employees to 35 and making it a leading player in the fight against the death penalty and extrajudicial killings.

Tara told me: “I joined the Bureau because I am passionate about its values, and believe that now more than ever, robust public interest journalism is crucial. I look forward to using my experience in helping organisations future-proof their business models, to help TBIJ thrive. And to continue its pivotal mission to help people better understand the world, give a voice to the voiceless, expose systemic wrongs, and spark long-lasting change.”

Clare told me: “I am proud to join the Bureau’s board. It feels now more than ever important to support excellent investigative journalism. I am very much looking forward to working with the Bureau’s team and being part of its work to put facts at the heart of the news.”

Elaine Potter, the Bureau’s founder and a board member, said: “We are delighted that Clare and Tara have chosen to join the TBIJ board at this time of considerable global instability. Covid, economic crises, the rise of nationalism and rejection of many of the values of the enlightenment further underline the importance of investigative journalism in pursuing the truth and holding the powerful to account. Our journalism can and does make a difference and we welcome our two new board members, confident they will help us grow and sustain the values the Bureau is built on.”

This week we are also announcing a number of key new staff across our wider team.

Our award-winning Bureau Local has introduced a health inequalities investigative project. This will be led by Rachel Hamada, who steps into this role after two years working as the Bureau Local’s community organiser. She will work with our new reporter Vicky Gale, who went from local journalism to Newsquest’s data investigations unit to a commissioning editor for Black Ballad.

Emiliano Mellino is joining Bureau Local as our new community organiser. Emiliano has years of experience as a financial reporter before running the communications office at the workers union IWBG. He is dogged, passionate and brings a wealth of ideas on how to bring communities into investigative journalism.

Our production desk is expanding with the appointment of Alex Hess, who is coming from the Guardian into the new role of our assistant production editor. Elle Zahrouni also joins the core Bureau team as operations assistant from D&AD, where she was part of the production team for the 2019 D&AD Awards and went on to work in content and administration.