Katharine Viner

Katharine Viner (born 1971) became the first female Editor-in-Chief at The Guardian on 1 June 2015 succeeding Alan Rusbridger.

Viner is a British journalist and playwright who headed The Guardian's web operations in Australia, moved to New York in September 2014 to take up responsibility for The Guardian's online presence in the United States, and was shortly after selected for the editor-in-chief's position.

Early life and education

Raised in Yorkshire, the daughter of teachers, Viner was educated at Ripon Grammar School, where she was head girl. Her first newspaper article, published in The Guardian in 1987 while she was still at school, was on the ending of the GCE O level examinations, which were being replaced in the UK by the General Certificate of Secondary Education, (GCSE) "Cramming five years of knowledge into two and a half hours does not seem to be a fair system," she wrote. Around 1988, Viner had a period of work experience at the Ripon Gazette, her local newspaper.