Bridget Kendall MBE Hon FBA

After a long career as a BBC foreign correspondent, Bridget Kendall was appointed the first female Master of Peterhouse, the University of Cambridge’s oldest College, in 2016, and served until 2023. She also served as a Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 2020-2023.

From 2008 to 2023, she hosted the weekly discussion programme on new ideas and research for the BBC, The Forum, presenting the programme from all over the world, from Beijing to South Africa, and from New York to New Zealand, with venues including the British Museum, the Sydney Opera House and CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

Educated at Oxford and Harvard, as well as two Russian Universities, she joined the BBC in 1983 and became BBC Moscow correspondent in 1989, covering the collapse of the Soviet Union. She served five years as BBC Washington Correspondent and 17 years in the senior role of BBC Diplomatic Correspondent. Her book The Cold War: a New Oral History explores the decades-long conflict through eye witness accounts.

Her awards and honours include the James Cameron Award for distinguished journalism and an MBE for services to journalism. She holds Honorary Doctorates from St Andrew’s, Exeter, York, and the Central University of Birmingham. She is an Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse, as well as two Oxford Colleges - Lady Margaret Hall and St Antony’s. She is an Honorary Fellow of British Academy.