Thornhill will oversee the FT’s global comment team to transform the way the FT commissions, edits and publishes commentary on multiple platforms. He will lead efforts to put new technology at the heart of the FT’s journalism, working closely with product development, data, audio, video and audience engagement teams.
Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, said: “John has been an exceptional deputy and I greatly value his qualities as an astute and imaginative colleague. The Financial Times has some of the most authoritative comment on business and current affairs in the world, and as innovation editor John will have the important task of leading development of the next generation of digital comment.”
He added: “Roula has masterfully lead a more than 100-strong team of foreign correspondents to cover some of the biggest recent stories in global governance. As deputy editor she will continue to drive the FT’s agenda-setting, borderless journalism at a significant time of growth in our digital presence and readership.”
Thornhill previously held the positions of news editor, European editor, Asia editor, foreign news editor, and bureau chief in Moscow and Paris. He joined the FT 27 years ago as a graduate trainee. In 2014 Thornhill launched The 125, a successful subscription event series that has featured business leaders including Mark Carney, Jack Dorsey, Bill Gates, Ana Botin and many of the FT’s top journalists.
Khalaf most recently served as the FT’s foreign editor and assistant editor. Prior to this she was Middle East editor, Middle East correspondent and north Africa correspondent. Before joining the FT in 1995 she was a staff writer for Forbes magazine in New York. Her series on Qatar won the Foreign Press Association’s Feature story of the year in 2013.
Brooke Masters, the companies editor, and Paul Murphy, editor of FT Alphaville, will also become assistant editors from March 1.
