The Marjorie Deane Financial Journalism Foundation has heard that LaToya Harding, a scholar funded by the Marjorie Deane Financial Journalism Foundation on last year’s MA in financial journalism, last night gave a speech at graduation on behalf of City’s whole student body in the Barbican. She is currently a business reporter at the Daily Telegraph.

Suzanne Franks, professor of journalism at City University of London, said:

The Journalism Department at City, established in 1976, today has thousands of alumni in media organisations across the UK and beyond. They include national newspaper editors and prominent figures across the industry. We are extremely proud of them and their many achievements. LaToya Harding who spoke is a fine example of the students who emerge from our postgraduate programme. She grew up in Birmingham in a family that originated in the Carribean. LaToya was the first member of the family to attend university. At school she loved both writing and maths – and she went on to Aston University where she gained a first class degree in business and accounting. In her final year she set up her own business with some classmates and upon graduation they all went on to work in the business – which is still thriving today.

After a couple of years LaToya started to think about pursing a career in journalism – and developing her love of writing. She was considering Colombia University in New York but in the end came to City and joined the MA in Financial Journalism. She was awarded a Marjorie Deane scholarship – in memory of the distinguished former Economist journalist, one of the female pioneers in financial journalism, whose foundation supports many of our students and other activities. LaToya thrived during her time at City which included class study trips to Shanghai and New York, also funded by the Marjorie Deane foundation. She had vacation internships at the BBC and CNN. Upon graduation LaToya was offered work at CNN but chose instead to take up a full-time role on the Daily Telegraph as a business reporter. You can find her byline regularly on the Telegraph company and market reports and she has also started some podcasting there too.

LaToya’s dream is to become a business or economics editor. Many previous City graduates have achieved that goal and with her determination and single-mindedness as well as her charm and personality I have little doubt that LaToya too will have a splendid career ahead of her as a financial journalist.