Mary Hockaday

Hockaday was born in Oxford, attending Oxford High School, an all-girls private school. She studied English at the University of Cambridge where she was an undergraduate student of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.^[4] Then, as a Fulbright Scholar, she studied journalism (MA) at New York University.

She joined the BBC as a World Service production trainee in 1986.^[5] She worked as a correspondent in Prague in the early 1990s and as a reporter, editor, producer for World Service news output. She was also the editor of The World Today.

She was the editor of BBC World Service News and Current Affairs (2001–2006),^[6] managing daily and weekly news and current affairs output for 9/11, Afghanistan and the Invasion of Iraq. Her department won a special Sony Gold award for its 9/11 coverage.^[2]

In 2007, she became deputy head of the BBC Newsroom, leading the On-Demand, Radio and Mediawire teams.^[5] In April 2009, she became Head of the Multimedia Newsroom. In October 2014 she was appointed controller of BBC World Service English. She left the BBC in 2021.^[6]

On 31 May 2022, it was announced that she was to become the next Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in succession to Jeremy Morris.^[6] She took up the post on 1 October 2022.^[4]

She serves as director of the Girls' Day School Trust a group of 25 private schools in the UK^[1] and a trustee of the British Library.^[7]

Hockaday is the author of a biography of Milena Jesenská, a Czech journalist and muse of Franz Kafka.^[8]