Based in London and reporting for the entire Marketplace portfolio, Stephen Beard provides daily coverage of Europe’s business and economic developments.

When asked what he most enjoys about his work, he answers simply, “Travel.” Over the past two years, he produced a series of features on the European debt crisis, reported from the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and various locations in Greece, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

Beard has spent four decades in radio. Before joining Marketplace in 1993, he worked for 20 years as a BBC staffer and freelance reporter, in addition to time with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and with commercial broadcasting stations in Manchester, England, and Victoria, British Columbia. His reporting has taken him throughout North America and Europe as well as the Middle East, China, Australia, Malaysia and India.

Beard holds a prestigious Clarion Award for his report on the death of U.S. politician Ron Brown; a National Federation of Community Broadcasters Golden Reel award for a series on modern-day slavery; and a New York Festivals Silver World Medal for his series on the changing face of Eastern Europe.

Beard is a graduate of the University of Leeds, with an honors degree in Law.

When not working, he enjoys reading biographies and tending his small farm outside London, which includes 110 ewes, one very noisy cockerel and an elderly, non-laying hen. In addition to his impressive journalism CV, he has also worked as a deep-sea fisherman and a bingo caller.