Richard Holmes

Covering a national security beat for this national my stories have regularly reached the front page. Working on exclusives looking at the impact of hostile nations in the UK and abroad.

• Worked quickly to delivery high-impact front page exclusives on Chinese hacks to the UK Foreign Office, the secret softening of the UK's policy on China, recruitment issues at the UK's foreign intelligence agency (MI6), and the secret diplomatic talks between the UK and Russia during the Ukraine war.
• Developed high-risk long-term investigations while covering a national security beat. Worked for six months to reveal how an alleged Russian intelligence asset living in London, who arrived in the UK with his family using the Government's Homes for Ukraine scheme.
• Produced a long-term investigation revealing how a UK government vehicle was found to have been bugged with a Chinese tracking device, sparking a diplomatic crisis forcing the UK to call out Beijing's adversarial tactics.
• Worked collaboratively with editors and colleagues to help maintain a thorough legal and fact-checking process when tackling any issue.
• Mentored junior reporters, sharing best practices in investigative journalism techniques for their professional development.

• Worked on a two-year investigation into Russian assassinations on UK soil. Identified and brought in key intelligence sources and documents to bolster reporting. This project went on to become a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
• Obtained a cache of police documents and spoke with multiple insiders to reveal how the UK's central counter terror IT Systems responsible for preventing terrorism were not fit for purpose, but were rolled out anyway weeks before a deadly attack in Manchester. Led the delivery in collaboration with BBC Newsnight and worked with a whistleblower over months to safely get him on the record.
• Led collaborative efforts among team members to produce a strand of the FinCEN Files, a BuzzFeed News collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Brought in sources to surrounding documents to reveal Standard Chartered Bank's business in Iran. The story went on to become a Pulitzer Prize Finalist.
• Demonstrated strong storytelling abilities, weaving together narratives to create compelling articles that captivated readers and sparked community discussions.
• Managed sensitive information with discretion while maintaining a high level of professionalism throughout the investigation process.