Knight-Bagehot names five to board of advisors

The Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Business and Economics at the Columbia Journalism School announced Wednesday the addition of new members to its Board of Advisors.

The new board members hold important leadership positions in journalism, strategy and communications in media, platforms and global business conglomerates.

“This past year has seen exciting changes in the Knight-Bagehot program that make it more relevant and vital to contemporary, global business journalism,” said Gillian Tett, U. S. managing editor of The Financial Times and current chair of the Knight-Bagehot Advisory Board. “Our new board members also reflect the expertise and diversity that we need and value in our mission to help grow and strengthen business journalism through this Fellowship.”

The Knight Bagehot fellowship is the largest and most rigorous mid-career business journalism fellowship in the world and fellows take a full academic year of courses at Columbia University’s renowned schools of business, journalism, law and other departments.

The new board members are:

Ellen Pollock, Editor, Business Day The New York Times

Ellen Pollock has been editor of Business Day, the business section at The New York Times, since April 2017.

Pollock came to The New York Times from Bloomberg Businessweek, where she served as the magazine’s editor. She was the first woman to hold the position at the magazine. Businessweek won a National Magazine Award for general excellence in 2012. Prior to joining Bloomberg Businessweek, Ms. Pollock worked at The Wall Street Journal for 18 years as a reporter and editor.

Articles she worked on as an editor at The Journal won Pulitzer Prizes in 2003 and 2005. She is the author of “ The Pretender: How Martin Frankel Fooled the Financial World and Led the Feds on One of the Most Publicized Manhunts in History.” Ms. Pollock is a graduate of Brandeis University and a great believer in the power of dark chocolate.

Sue Suh, Chief People Officer, Time

Sue Suh is the first Chief People Officer for Time, the 96-year-news brand with an audience of over 100 million people across the globe on multiple platforms.

Over the course of a dozen years before joining Time, Sue served in a variety of roles with The Rockefeller Foundation. Most recently she served as Managing Director and Senior Advisor for the Bellagio & Fellows Program, working with a team that helps attract talent and develop programming for the Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy. In this role she also supported the new Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships that provide leading thinkers and doers in the social sector a platform to develop their next game-changing idea. Simultaneously Sue served as acting Director for Employee Services, overseeing the Foundation’s physical facilities, events, travel, security and logistics. Sue’s previous roles at the Foundation include Chief Talent Officer, Special Assistant & Director of the President’s Office, as well as interim Director of the Asia Office in Bangkok, Thailand.

Before moving to global philanthropy, Sue served with the U.S. Departments of State and Defense in Washington DC, New York, and Tripoli, Libya—managing issues such as nuclear nonproliferation, UN sanctions, public affairs, and overall U.S.-UN relations. Sue and her husband also spent several years in Singapore, where she pursued a master’s degree in international relations, and offered pro-bono support and advice to a variety of social impact organizations, including serving on the start-up team of Impact Investment Exchange Asia.

Sue currently sits on the Boards of the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, the Classical Theatre of Harlem, and Special Olympics Asia Pacific. Sue studied at Princeton University (Politics BA) and Columbia University (Political Science MA), and won a Fulbright award to South Korea and was a Presidential Management Fellowship with the U.S. federal government.

Sarah Lubman, Partner, Corporate Communications, Softbank Group

Sarah Lubman is a strategic communications advisor and former journalist. In 2019, she joined SoftBank Group as Partner, Corporate Communications, to support the communications strategy and initiatives of SoftBank and its global portfolio of companies. Previously, she was a Partner at Brunswick Group, where she specialized in the telecom, media and technology sector. At Brunswick, Sarah provided counsel on a wide range of transactions and high-stakes situations, including cross-border M&A, crisis management and litigation. Her clients included WeWork, Etsy, Blue Apron and AT&T.

Before joining Brunswick in 2005, Sarah was a journalist for 17 years, including 6 years based in Asia. She worked for ABC News in Tokyo; UPI, NPR and other outlets in Beijing; and was a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, National/Foreign Editor at the San Jose Mercury News, and Asia Editor at Newsweek International in the US. Sarah graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Japanese and Religious Studies and has an M.A. in Japanese Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is on the board of the Overseas Press Club of America and chairs the OPC’s annual awards dinner.

Rahul Chopra, Head of Strategic Initiatives, Snap

Rahul Chopra heads strategy at Snap Inc. Prior to that, he was head of Stories Everywhere since December 2017. Previously, he was CEO of Storyful.com, the world’s first social news agency, from 2014 to 2017. In that role, Rahul led a team of journalists and technologists who discovered and verified compelling online content, working with news organizations and other clients worldwide. Storyful was acquired by News Corp in December 2013, with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and offices in New York and Hong Kong.

Earlier, Rahul launched and oversaw video globally across Dow Jones, including WSJ Live, The Wall Street Journal’s video initiative. He also held multiple roles within business development at Dow Jones, primarily focusing on the Journal’s video, mobile and tablet expansion strategy, as well as developing external strategic partnerships to expand reach and distribution.

Before joining Dow Jones, he worked in corporate finance for several years with Morgan Stanley and Bank of New York. Rahul holds an MBA from the HEC School of Management in Paris and a BS in economics from Rutgers University.

Rebecca Lowell, Head, Global Communications at Schneider Electric

As the head of global communications at Schneider Electric, Rebecca fosters awareness and understanding of how the company is leading digital transformation of energy and automation in homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and other

industries. Previously, she was director, communications and public affairs at the International Olympic Committee working to strengthen the Olympic Movement globally and drive gender equity in the sporting world. Prior to that, Becky was Chief Communications Officer at GE Oil & Gas.

Becky started her career as a journalist at Dow Jones News Service and The Wall Street Journal. She made the jump to the marketing at Dow Jones after completing an MBA. She has advised companies in the healthcare, technology and energy sectors about how to improve or preserve their reputation. And she has supported not-for-profit organizations in pursuit of policy change in the areas of healthcare, arts and education and is on the board of the Africa America Institute. Becky received an undergraduate degree in humanities from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She will be based in Boston with her husband, John, and children, Rita and Jake.

The five new members will join these current Knight Bagehot Advisory Board members: https://journalism.columbia.edu/knight-bagehot-board-advisors