Tuesday 4th March 2025

Robert Peston is ITV’s Political Editor and host of their flagship politics and current affairs show, Peston. He covers the latest happenings in Westminster and interviews important players on the national and international political scenes. In addition to this, he co-hosts, the podcast The Rest Is Money with Steph McGovern where they explore what we need to know about the issues that affect us in our everyday lives, decode business jargon, and revisit some of the biggest financial events of the last half century.

Prior to his high-profile move to ITV Robert was the BBC’s Economics Editor, revealing the stories behind the statistics and explaining the implications of domestic, European, and global economic shifts. Before that, as Business Editor, he broadcast and published a series of exclusive and influential stories about the global financial
situation. He revealed the crises at Northern Rock and RBS, the emergency rescue of HBOS, and the tumult around the credit crunch, bailouts, and austerity.

Before joining the BBC, Robert was City and Assistant Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, in charge of the business and money sections, and the FT's Financial Editor. At the FT, he was a member of the editorial board and earlier he served as its Political Editor, Banking Editor, and founder of the investigation’s unit.

Away from the cameras Robert has also won plaudits for his online journalism. He is the author of critically acclaimed books including How Do We Fix This Mess? and Who Runs Britain?. Both examine the causes and longterm implications of the 2008 financial crisis. Whilst WTF?, described by the Financial Times as “mandatory
reading”, takes a broader look at the world, what’s gone wrong, and proposes possible solutions across politics, society and business. In Brown's Britain Robert explained for the first time the real nature of the relationship between Blair and Brown. His novel The Whistleblower was described by the Daily Mail as “cracking” and “Gripping”
by Radio Times.

Amongst over thirty journalism awards Robert has to his name, he has won the Royal Television Society's Journalist of the Year, Specialist Journalist of the Year, and Scoop of the Year (twice), the Wincott Prize for financial journalism, and the Broadcasting Press Guild's award for Best Performer in a non-acting role.

Robert has written and presented several documentaries and factual series, notably four films about China's boom and possible bust, two on the EU referendum, three films on the financial crisis, and the popular series Robert Peston Goes Shopping. Away from journalism Robert is also the founder of the education charity Speakers for
Schools, and the Vice President of Hospice UK.

Vanessa Spence joined ASOS in 2007 after starting her career 9 years prior working in design at Arcadia and briefly at Pepe Jeans.

Starting with a team of two, Vanessa was influential in shaping the ASOS brand and now has a team of over 100. Vanessa was made Womenswear Design Director in 2015 and promoted to Design Director of both Womenswear and Menswear in 2018 to develop a unified look and feel to the ASOS ranges, trends and collaborations.

Now in her current role as Executive Vice President (Creative), Vanessa oversees all creative across ASOS.com, product, studios and content. Vanessa also sits on the Board of Governors for the Fashion Retail Academy and CreativeUK while also joining the Fashion Minority Alliance in 2020 as one of their resident experts in Fashion Retail.