Jon Williams

Jon Williams joined the Rory Peck Trust as Executive Director in 2024, after a three decade long career in global journalism on both sides of the Atlantic.

A three-time Emmy Award-winner, Jon was previously the BBC’s Foreign Editor where he oversaw coverage of the Arab Spring and the war in Afghanistan, leading more than 200 journalists across 30 countries. He went on to become Managing Editor of ABC News in New York, before returning to public broadcasting as Managing Director of RTÉ News, where he led the digital transformation of Ireland’s national broadcaster and helped establish RTÉ News as the country’s most trusted news source.

For Jon, a career spent believing that truth matters has become something more: a mission to protect the journalists who risk everything to report it. He helps lead ‘On The Record’, the campaign to build the UK’s first permanent memorial to journalists killed in service of the truth. For the past decade, he has served on the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, where he chairs its Journalists Assistance Task Force and is a Trustee of UK for UNHCR  the UN Refugee Agency’s UK fundraising foundation.