Nisha Pillai

Former BBC News presenter and journalist Nisha Pillai is a motivational speaker and conference host who honed her presentation and journalism skills over 20 years working for the BBC, and is well recognised as one of the main news anchors on BBC World News. A former presenter on the BBC’s HARDtalk interview programme, she has interviewed the likes of legendary musician Phil Collins, Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan and writer V.S. Naipaul. She won a Royal Television Society award for “The Max Factor”, the result of her nine-month investigation into Robert Maxwell’s financial affairs.

Born in India, Pillai moved to London when she 14. After graduating from the London School of Economics, she joined Schroders Investment Bank before making the transition into journalism with a move to Investors Chronicle. Pillai first joined the BBC as a journalist in 1986, working on The Money Programme and Panorama, followed by award-winning documentary The Max Factor.

In 1995, she rose to prominence when she moved in front of the cameras to join the BBC World News Channel as one of the main anchors. Presenting hourly news reports, she gave live coverage of some of the world’s biggest news events, including the fall of Baghdad and the September 11 attacks, and became one of the channel’s favourite presenters thanks to her quick thinking and professional sense of judgement. After 20 years at the top of her profession, Pillai is now in demand for delivering speeches and moderating conferences, with clients including several different UN agencies, EDF Energy, Ernst & Young and The European Wind Energy Association.