Mike Pearse, Associate Director, Crisis Communications
With over thirty years reporting experience Mike Pearse has covered every conceivable story for ITV and BBC News. He is one of the most experienced broadcast journalists in the country and a former Broadcast Journalist of the Year. Most recently he produced a landmark documentary with Julie Etchingham looking at how ITV covered and coped with Covid-19.
Mike’s reporting ranges from major accidents, including fatal rail accidents in Clapham, Kings Cross, Ladbroke Grove and Ufton Nervet, to covering politics and every General Election since the 1980’s, the UK High Speed Train project, 9/11 and reporting from the Falklands for every ITV region on the anniversary of the conflict. From the launch of the biggest ships and planes in the world to our biggest road schemes and travel features around the globe and recently Coronavirus, Mike has reported live from all over the world. He has followed key issues including major issues over the opening of Heathrow Terminal 5, and expansions at Heathrow and Gatwick Airports.
He has reported internationally from plane crashes to interviews with key political leaders and celebrities.
Mike has produced many live programmes and himself made the front page of every national newspaper when he exposed security lapses at Heathrow, Gatwick and Southampton airports after 9/11. His reporting led to a Government inquiry and the increased security we see today at airports.
Documentary credits include a series on the building and completion of HS1 and an award winning special programme revealing road building proposals in southern England.
As a senior manager at ITV Mike led significant projects changing the way hundreds of journalists work. He led and devised training that now allows most regional reporters at the BBC and ITV to self-shoot and laptop edit. He has been at the forefront of new technology and has a unique insight into the current and future trends of the broadcast industry. He has led and managed teams of journalists in recent years reporting into regional news and ITN.
