Speaker
Sharanjit LEYL
- Title
- Chancellor, Bath Spa University / Former BBC Senior Broadcast Journalist
Biography
A familiar face on global screens, Sharanjit LEYL has brought you the news from Asia on BBC World News, Bloomberg Television and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for a quarter of a century. She spent eighteen years with BBC World News, covering business and politics, anchoring from its Asia bureau and from London's Broadcasting House.
Singaporean by birth, she's produced and presented documentaries on TV and radio about her city on the BBC and covered many breaking news stories live and on location. She's been highly commended as Best Presenter and shows she's anchored have won best news programme at the Asian TV Awards.
Educated in North America with undergraduate degrees in Journalism and a Master of Arts in English, Sharanjit has lived and worked in Tokyo, London, Vancouver, Washington, D.C., and Singapore, bringing a truly global perspective to her work. She now regularly moderates high-level debates for the United Nations, the ADB and other multilateral and financial institutions while balancing a board career and advising companies and educational institutions on media strategy.
A champion of the Arts, Sharanjit holds leadership roles at the Fashion Museum of Bath where she Co-Chairs the Board of Trustees and heads the DEI committee at The Holburne Museum. In Singapore, she serves on the board of The Necessary Stage and is an advisor to The British Theatre Playhouse.
In May 2024, Sharanjit made history as the first Asian national appointed as a Chancellor of a U.K. university—Bath Spa University—succeeding her predecessor Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons. As a result, she divides her time between her homes in Singapore and Bath.
Singaporean by birth, she's produced and presented documentaries on TV and radio about her city on the BBC and covered many breaking news stories live and on location. She's been highly commended as Best Presenter and shows she's anchored have won best news programme at the Asian TV Awards.
Educated in North America with undergraduate degrees in Journalism and a Master of Arts in English, Sharanjit has lived and worked in Tokyo, London, Vancouver, Washington, D.C., and Singapore, bringing a truly global perspective to her work. She now regularly moderates high-level debates for the United Nations, the ADB and other multilateral and financial institutions while balancing a board career and advising companies and educational institutions on media strategy.
A champion of the Arts, Sharanjit holds leadership roles at the Fashion Museum of Bath where she Co-Chairs the Board of Trustees and heads the DEI committee at The Holburne Museum. In Singapore, she serves on the board of The Necessary Stage and is an advisor to The British Theatre Playhouse.
In May 2024, Sharanjit made history as the first Asian national appointed as a Chancellor of a U.K. university—Bath Spa University—succeeding her predecessor Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons. As a result, she divides her time between her homes in Singapore and Bath.
