Dominic Laurie
Encyclopedia
Early life
Born in April 1974, he grew up in Highgate in north LondonNorth London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
. His parents are both from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
He studied French and Italian at Robinson College at Cambridge University, during the course spending a year out as an English teacher at a secondary school in Rome.
Career
He worked for five years in brand management, first at United BiscuitsUnited Biscuits
__FORCETOC__United Biscuits is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of the BN biscuits, McVitie's biscuits, KP Nuts, Hula Hoops, The Real McCoy's crisps, Phileas Fogg snacks, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets...
(UB), where he started out as a car salesman selling crisps and biscuits in Cardiff and West Wales, then moving to London to work in marketing on a brand of diet crisps. In 1999, he moved to the budget airline Go Fly
Go Fly
Go Fly was the name of an award-winning British airline. It was purchased by EasyJet.-History:Bob Ayling, ex-chief of British Airways, approached EasyJet's founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, to ask whether he could visit claiming that he was fascinated by how the Greek entrepreneur had made the budget...
as brand manager, after a while being appointed UK Marketing manager. When he joined it was a subsidiary of British Airways
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
. It was then bought by the venture capital firm 3i, and in 2002 was then merged with easyJet.
Broadcasting
At the age of 29 he retrained as a broadcast journalist at the then University of Central England in Birmingham, and worked first for just over a year at BBC Radio OxfordBBC Radio Oxford
BBC Radio Oxford is the BBC Local Radio station for the English county of Oxfordshire, broadcasting on 95.2 FM via the Oxford transmitter and online. The station broadcasts live from the BBC's Summertown studios in Oxford between 5am and 7pm each weekday, for over 13 hours on Saturdays & 19 hours...
as reporter, producer and newsreader. He then moved to London, working as a freelance producer on 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
and as an overnight reporter on the Sky news world news program. In 2006, he then became a full time journalist in the BBC business and economics unit.
Between October 2007 and April 2008, he was the BBC's Europe business reporter in Brussels. From January 2009 he worked as a reporter on the BBC lunchtime programme Working Lunch
Working Lunch
Working Lunch was a television programme broadcast on BBC Two which covered business, personal finance and consumer news between 1994 and 2010. The programme was first aired on 19 September 1994. It had a quirky, relaxed style, especially when compared to other BBC business shows such as World...
, which was discontinued in July 2010. He has also presented the business news on the BBC TV news channel and the business news on the Radio 4 program Today, in particular looking after the Friday boss interview.
In 2011 he co-presented the 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
early morning business programme, Wake Up to Money
Wake Up to Money
Wake Up to Money is an early morning weekday financial radio programme on BBC Radio Five Live. It is broadcast from 5.35am - 6am in the early morning.-History:...
.