Mark Coles is an award winning reporter and presenter with over 25 years experience at the BBC which has taken him from dangerous war zones to the backstage dressing rooms of some of the world's biggest music stars.
He presented BBC Radio 4's Today programme from 2001-2003 with John Humphrys, Jim Naughtie and Sue MacGregor. Prior to that he was a reporter for the Today programme - covering conflicts in Somalia, Kosovo, the former Yugoslavia, Iran, India and other regions before he moved on to specialisie n the arts - becoming Today's arts correspondent.
He has interviewed just about every music star going - from Nina Simone and Led Zeppelin to Van Morrisson, Elvis Costello, James Brown, Debbie Harry, Stevie Wonder and The White Stripes (though he still hasn't managed that interview with Bob Dylan yet). He is equally at home interviewing politicians and prime ministers (Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Al Gore to name but some). But music is his real passion and where his expertise lies.
Mark currently presents programmes for the BBC World Service - a daily arts and entertainment programme called 'The Strand' and a world music programme called 'World Of Music.' Both programmes have a global reach of 42 million people and are rebroadcast on public radio stations across the US.
A conversationalist with plenty of witty anecdotes, Mark is equally at home as a conference presenter, facilitator, or after-dinner speaker.