“Journalism at its best and most effective is education” – Martha Gellhorn

John Dawson is a former Prime Time News Anchor who, after 20 years in journalism, transitioned to communications to leverage his frontline experience and advise on reputation and crisis management, CEO positioning, executive media training and digital storytelling.,

In broadcast, John established a reputation for landing world exclusives through his probing interviews with heads of state and global leaders in industry, politics, finance, academia and sport – from Fortune 500 CEOs and Presidents to Nobel Laureates and Olympians. He moderated keynote panels for, and reported from, politically charged gatherings at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the EU, IMF and OPEC meetings. After 20 years with Bloomberg in Europe and Asia, John was appointed global media counsel for a leading Asia-based boutique agency focused on crisis & reputation management. Three years later, he moved in-house as VP, Executive Communications for Melco Resorts and Entertainment. In 2019, he launched his own communications consultancy, Acara Strategy. 

John’s expertise can be divided between his years in the high-octane environment of Bloomberg and the world of communications, where he has focused on developing key client-facing strategic skills: 

+ Media Expertise – Honed from one of the world’s most respected newsrooms, John progressed through Bloomberg’s ranks from graduate intern, to global financial markets reporter, feature writer and, two years later, to television. Self-taught as a presenter, John’s reporting assignments ranged from WEF in Davos to becoming Bloomberg TV’s lead reporter on the technology revolution. Between 1999 and his relocation to Asia in 2010, John was the Chief TMT correspondent at the 3GSM, Cable Congress and CeBit events across Europe.

+ Exclusives Record– John’s 100% success rate of breaking news from interviews and landing market-moving exclusives propelled him to being appointed the prime time news anchor on Europe’s highest-rated morning business show. His 60-minute world exclusive with former General Electric CEO Jack Welch was selected for the U.K. Business Journalist of the Year Award.

+ CEO Profiling– John has unrivalled front-facing experience with leading influencers, having conducted over 8,500 interviews with newsmakers in politics, philanthropy, industry, finance and sport. Past interviewees include Presidents Clinton, Aquino and De Klerk; U.K. Prime Ministers Blair, Brown and Major, Sweden’s Bildt, Italy’s Prodi and Berlusconi, Russia’s Chubais and former Yugoslavia PM Milan Panic; Alibaba’s Jack Ma, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, BP’s Lord Browne, Christine Lagarde, Marjorie Scardino, Sir Richard Branson, Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein, Carly Fiorina, Tony O’Reilly, Michael Dell, Sir Martin Sorrell, Nobel Prize winners Professors Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman and former CIA Director and 4-star General David Petraeus.

+ Public Speaking – John has chaired numerous keynote events on the conference circuit, including WEF, Cable Congress, 3GSM, the Forbes CEO Global Conference, the Barclays Global Conference, AVCJ, the Asia-Pacific Conference (APK) of German Business, ASIFMA, the American Chamber of Commerce and the IMG/HSBC Golf Business Forum in Shanghai, where on-stage interviews included Ping Chairman John Solheim and 2x U.S. Masters Champion Bubba Watson.

John’s interviewing technique comes to the fore with the 45-minute “fireside” chat format. Before a private audience, he has interviewed General Petraeus, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jamie Rubin, Oaktree Co-Founder and Chairman Howard Marks, and, for BAFTA, the award-winning British filmmaker Duncan Kenworthy (‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, ‘Notting Hill’, ‘Love Actually’).

He has hosted numerous environment-focused, arts and charity events. These include The Prince’s Trust, GGEF Sustainability Conference, Habitat for Humanity, Art Basel, Just Challenge/Laureus Sport and, in 2017, John emceed the biennial Kids4Kids Gala Dinner, which raised HK$4.6 million.

+ Feature Writer – As a writer, his articles featured on Bloomberg and in publications around the world, including The New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune and Business Week. 

John relocated to Hong Kong in 2010 and holds Permanent HK Residency and the APEC Business Travel Card. 

Most importantly, he is the proud Dad to a wonderful and highly talented daughter (he’s biased but it’s true!).