Media comms trainingConsultants

Ghaida Ghantous

Ghaida Ghantous has nine years experience as a correspondent at Reuters, writing on topics ranging from the energy and financial sectors in the Gulf region to political and security issues in the Middle East. During her time as an energy correspondent, she led and participated in team coverage of conferences and ministerial meetings in the Middle East and abroad, including policy-setting sessions of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. As security correspondent, she reported on major security events in assignments across the Gulf, including militant attacks on foreigners in Saudi Arabia in 2004 and Kuwait in 2003. She also produced general news stories on moves towards greater democracy, human rights and economic development in the Middle East as well as lifestyle features. A Lebanese national, Ghaida speaks fluent English and Arabic.

Heba Kandil

Heba Kandil has more than ten years of media and communications experience in the Middle East, working for international organisations and global news agencies such as Reuters, NBC TV, Associated Press TV and the UN World Food Programme. Heba, who is a fluent English and Arabic speaker, joined Reuters in Cairo in 2002 and worked in the Reuters’ Gulf Bureau based in Dubai to cover major financial and political news stories including the 2003 US-led war in Iraq, a rise in militant violence in the Gulf region, a growth in the number of IPOs, booming stock market activity and mega construction projects that were financed by a surplus in oil profits. She moved back to Cairo in 2007 as public information officer and head of the public information unit for the UN World Food Programme for the Middle East, East Europe and Caucasus, where she was also the spokesperson.

Heba is currently a journalism and media trainer for Thomson Reuters Foundation and a freelance editor based in Cairo.

James Thomas

James Thomas has more than twenty years experience in international broadcast journalism, as a producer, reporter, news editor and senior executive.

He spent twelve years with Worldwide Television News (now APTN) where he was News Director for Asia and covered events such as Tiananmen Square, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, the Maharashtra earthquake, the first Gulf War and the Balkans crisis.

In 1994 James was recruited by Reuters to project-manage their 24-hour TV news syndication service in Asia, while taking responsibility for the sales and marketing of their video operations in Asia. He then took over as Business Development Manager and eventually Global Marketing Director for Reuters Video News, among other things launching Reuters Reports – the company’s first foray into multitasking TV journalism and its first video product designed for webcasting.

In 2000 James left Reuters to help launch www.thenewsmarket.com an internet-based video delivery platform used by organizations such as UNICEF as well as leading companies to distribute their video content to broadcasters worldwide. As Director of Media Relations, one of James’s main roles was to train users of the service in maximizing their reach to media outlets.

James recently chose to work as a self-employed media consultant and trainer. While he is a video news specialist, he has also worked in radio and print journalism.

Jem Thomas

Jem Thomas has extensive experience in media relations and strategic communication, having run media campaigns for the UK armed forces, NATO and the European Union, covering a wide spectrum of programmes, from democratisation to safety awareness. He latterly served as the Chief Instructor at UK’s Defence Media Operations Centre (DMOC), responsible for media relations and communication training and doctrine development across the UK Ministry of Defence.

During this time he served as the Press Director for UK Armed Forces in Basrah, Iraq and Lashkah Gar, Afghanistan. More recently he has media trained and facilitated communication strategies and media campaigns for various governmental and non-governmental organisations, including the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, the United Nations and the government of the United Arab Emirates, working in areas from Kabul to Mogadishu.

His work has also included clients from a wide spectrum in the private sector, from energy companies through financial institutions to law firms. Jem also has an academic background in strategic communication, public diplomacy and public relations, with a diploma in PR (highest industry standard), a Masters degree in International Relations from Cambridge University and a Masters degree in Security Studies from St Andrews University. He is a Member of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and a strategic communication consultant for the UK government's Stabilisation Unit.

Nicholas Phythian

Nicholas Phythian worked for Reuters for more than 20 years in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia as a reporter, sub-editor, bureau chief or editor with news editing and management responsibilities. Political and general news is his speciality. 

A Briton and fluent French speaker, he uses his experience as a working journalist to offer insights into the challenges anyone dealing with the media – or new media - is likely to face, and how best to respond to them.

As a consultant for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and a former Reuters bureau chief for news and television in West Africa, he has run media relations workshops for the UN in different parts of Africa.

With UNICEF, he devised a programme that brought together journalists, UN and government press officers and NGO representatives around the subject of nutrition, and its impact on the health of people living in Africa’s Sahel region.

Nick Kotch

Nick Kotch is a former Reuters Africa bureau chief who now works as a journalism and media trainer, a correspondent and a consultant across the continent. A Briton aged 53, he has also contributed to National Geographic, observed presidential elections in Cameroon and written the text of a photographic book on Nelson Mandela.

A graduate of Oxford University, he speaks fluent French and passable Italian. Since leaving Reuters in 2004 after 27 years as a correspondent, editor and bureau chief, he has trained journalists and communicators in 20 African countries for a variety of international and African clients. Working in English or French his courses cover subjects as varied as governance, labour relations, business and sport. Clients include "Reuters Foundation, the International Labour Organisation, UNDP, the IAJ and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in South Africa".