Reuters president Paul Bascobert shared the below note with staff Wednesday:
After an extensive external and internal search, I’m delighted to announce that Jane Barrett has been appointed Head of Product, Reuters. Jane will take up her new role with immediate effect, reporting to me. She will continue to serve on the Reuters Executive Committee.
Jane is currently our Head of AI Strategy, a role she has held for almost two years. This period has been one of unprecedented technological and industry-wide change, during which Reuters has adopted AI and built it both into how we work internally and how our clients interact with us, driven by Jane’s exceptional leadership. Stepping into the role of Head of Product is, therefore, a natural progression for Jane and for Reuters, as we continue to accelerate towards our goal of becoming the world’s leading AI-powered news organization. Reuters was one of the first news organizations to appoint a head of AI, and we are now one of the first to fold AI into our core structure.
When hiring for this role, I knew that it required a deep understanding of editorial, AI, and product. Jane brings more than 25 years of experience in our newsroom as both a journalist and an editorial leader who knows our three major client groups and their needs well. She has also played a key role in starting to reimagine our product and engineering functions with AI-native ways of working, together with Mahesh Ramachandran and Gabriella Di Maggio, and has worked closely with me as interim Head of Product and our product teams to set a vision and roadmap for our AI-powered tools and features. I’m excited for the future of our product offering under Jane’s leadership.
Jane joined Reuters straight out of university in 1999, beginning her career as reporter in London, Rome, Milan and Madrid, before leading the start-up of Reuters Insider, an innovative financial video product built from the ground up by Reuters teams. She then held the role of Company News Editor, EMEA, followed by Global Head of Multimedia, and was our Global Editor, Media News Strategy before stepping up as our Head of AI Strategy in 2024. As she steps into the Head of Product role, we will transition some of the remaining AI strategy work to others in the company. We will announce those changes further down the line.
In all her roles, Jane has been a passionate leader, an innovator, and a strategic thinker who has been central to Reuters continued delivery of news products that meet our clients’ needs. Please join me in congratulating her on her new role.
Best regards,
Paul
