PRE-JOURNALISM – 2000 - 2003

Helen studied Japanese at university and lived and worked there for two years. She started her career in 2000 as a tax consultant for Arthur Andersen, advising Japanese expatriates on their UK tax position.

Once she went through the slog of qualifying for all the tax exams, she gave it up for journalism and went back to being a poor student and got a PG Dip Broadcast Journalism from the University of Westminster.

She taught salsa and launched a weekly salsa club night to fund her studies.

SILM FM- BREAKFAST NEWSREADER & NEWS EDITOR – AUGUST 2003 – JULY 2004

Helen freelanced at several radio stations including Virgin Radio, Signal1 And Dee 103. She got her first job at Silk FM as a radio reporter and newsreader and then later became news editor. She loved everything except opening up the radio station at 5am in winter and doing the weekly interview with the local football manager because she never had a clue what he was going on about.

ITN (IRN) – NEWSREADER AND REPORTER – JULY 2004 – MARCH 2006

Constantly responding to breaking news on the busy news desk at ITN’s Independent Radio News, Helen read live networked news bulletins and produced reports for nearly 300 commercial radio stations across the UK including Classic FM, Jazz FM, and Magic FM.

ITN (ITN-ON) – PRODUCER AND PRESENTER – MARCH 2006 – APRIL 2008

Working in ITN’s multimedia newsroom, Helen produced video content for a variety of digital and online clients including MSN, Yahoo, and Telegraph TV. She also presented and reported for a 24-hour rolling news channel broadcast specifically for mobile phones.

CURRENT TV – NEWS PRODUCER – APRIL 2008 – JANUARY 2009

Helen played a key role in launching the channel’s news service. Current News was a unique project based on the principle the viewer creates the news agenda. Current News was a refreshing news model and used non-conventional creative editing techniques and incorporated viewer comment.

FREELANCE – JANUARY 2009 - PRESENT

In January Helen became freelance, wanting to expand into print media to work on more in-depth investigations and features. She still maintains her broadcast skills with producer shifts on the news desks at ITN, Setanta Sports and NBC. Since being freelance Helen also produced and presented the two short documentaries for Current TV, ‘Extreme Dating’ and ‘Steroids in our Gyms’. (See TV and Radio)