Page 53 - Powerlist 2019 - Digital Edition

Vanessa Kingori

Publisher, British Vogue

In January 2018, Vanessa became Publishing Director of Media, Publishing & Entertainment
British Vogue in all its guises, the first female publisher in its
102-year history. Vanessa is also Condé Nast UK’s youngest
serving publisher and the first black or ethnic minority
publisher throughout the company.
Vanessa joined Vogue from British GQ where she was
publisher of the multi-platform brand for three years. Again,
this marked an array of key firsts.
During her tenure at GQ, Vanessa gave particular focus
to building the brand’s digital revenue and credibility while
simultaneously growing and maintaining the print elements
of the portfolio.
The year 2016 marked her first full year as GQ’s Publisher,
and became the brand’s most successful year of revenue
generation of the past decade. Vanessa implemented
and managed significant change including retraining
and restructuring her largely print-heritage team. Digital
revenue, in particular rose steeply. As a result, GQ
Publishing won several awards including ‘Best Branded
Content’ at the 2017 Digiday awards and the Condé
Nast International award for the best native advertising
performance across all CN global brands. She now brings
this insight and strategy to running Condé Nast UK’s
flagship brand, Vogue. Ade Adepitan
Vanessa has a keen interest in youth development. In TV presenter and Paralympic
her role as Visiting Fellow at the University of the Arts wheelchair basketball player
London, she supports students through mentoring, panel
discussions, and project evaluations. She has judged the
Black British Business Awards since 2015 with a personal From sport to television presenting and documentary film
emphasis on corporate rising stars and entrepreneurs making, Ade makes a huge success of everything he does.
focused on media and the arts. He was struck with polio at a young age, but despite being
Vanessa was awarded an MBE in 2016. left with a disability, he went on to become a medal-winning
sportsman, taking part in the Sydney 2000 Paralympics,
grabbing a bronze medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004
and gold at the 2005 Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.
He has more than 90 caps for Great Britain and continues to
take part in international tournaments.
He has hosted Children In Need alongside Tess Daley
and fronted coverage of the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the
Invictus Games.
His powerful news short for Channel 4’s Unreported
World, Vietnam’s Toxic Legacy, has had more than 10million
views. He also continues to present the BBC Travel Show
which has a global audience of 80 million.
Ade frequently investigates controversial and
ground-breaking stories for Channel 4’s award-winning
documentary series Dispatches. Episodes have seen him
confronting the UK benefit system’s personal disability
allowances. Other documentary work includes Ade
Adepitan: Journey of my Lifetime, which saw him return to
Nigeria, the place of his birth to investigate the continuing
polio epidemic there. He is also a regular reporter for the
BBC’s One Show.
This year he’s been busy working on a new four-part
documentary for BBC 2 and has released his first children’s
book, Ade’s Amazing Ade-ventures: Battle of the Cyborg Cat.
Ade received an MBE in 2005 and recently became a
Patron of Rotary International UK and Ireland, supporting
the ‘Purple4Polio’ campaign which is fighting to eradicate
polio all over the world.

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