After Dinner Speakers: Tanya Beckett, William Freund, Phil Cornwall

Tanya Beckett is the World Business Report presenter for the BBC's The World Today programme launched in September 2001 on BBC One, BBC News 24 and BBC World. She was previously the business presenter on BBC One's Breakfast programme in the UK. Since joining the BBC in June 1998, she has also presented and reported for BBC Two's 'Working Lunch'. Before joining the BBC Tanya worked for various broadcasters including NBC Europe and CNBC Europe, where she presented The Moneywheel and FT Business Tonight focussing on business and political news; Sky News as presenter of its live 30 minute nightly business news programme; CNN International, reporting from the London International Financial Futures Exchange; and for News Direct Radio. During her television career Tanya also presented a 30-minute chat show for NBC Europe with guests from the worlds of politics, showbusiness and the arts, including Chaim Herzog, Salman Rushdie, Ian Smith and Eddie Izzard. Tanya graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge with a degree in Metallurgy and the Science of Materials. After leaving university she worked for Courtaulds in Coventry, researching the properties of carbon and glass fibres. In 1989 she moved to become an investment banker for Commerzbank in Frankfurt and Citibank in London. Tanya was born in July 1966, speaks German and French and her hobbies include theatre acting and directing, tennis and long distance running. She has a blue in fencing from Cambridge and really enjoys speaking engagements.