Thinking the Unthinkable logo Thinking the Unthinkable icon

Our Team

Nik

Nik Gowing

Founder and Director

Nik Gowing founded the Thinking the Unthinkable project in 2014. He is Director of Think Unthinkable Ltd and co-author of Thinking the Unthinkable (2018).

Nik was a main news presenter for the BBC’s international 24-hour news channel BBC World News 1996-2014. He presented The Hub with Nik Gowing, BBC World Debates, Dateline London, plus location coverage of major global stories.

He spent 18 years at ITN in senior roles including Diplomatic Editor, Channel 4 News. He received a BAFTA in 1982 for his coverage of martial law in Poland.

He is a Visiting Professor at Kings College London and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

He has been a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Geo-Economics. He is an adviser on leadership challenges to the President of the UN General Assembly.

Nik has been a member of the councils of major think tanks like Chatham House and the Royal United Services Institute.

His peer-reviewed study at Oxford University ‘Skyful of Lies and Black Swans’ (2009) predicted what is now labelled ‘Fake News’. It identified the new vulnerability and brittleness of institutional power in the new all-pervasive public information space.

Nik was awarded Honorary Doctorates by Exeter University and Bristol University. They recognise his ongoing cutting edge analysis and distinguished career in international journalism.