Stephen Beard

SHORT BIO

Based in London, Stephen Beard is Marketplace's former London Bureau Chief. He reported for the entire Marketplace portfolio providing daily coverage of Europe’s business and economic developments.

When asked what he most enjoys about his work, he answers simply, “travel.” Stephen 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.

Stephen 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.

Stephen 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.

Stephen is a graduate of the University of Leeds, with an honors degree in Law. When Stephen isn’t 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.

Latest Stories (38)

British walkers demand wider right to roam

Sep 28, 2022
A United Kingdom group is calling for greater access to the countryside and is organizing mass trespasses to get it.
The majority of the England's countryside is off limits to the public, but an assortment of nature lovers is advocating for expanded public access to the countryside.
Stephen Beard/Marketplace

Cash: Who needs it? Britons mull over the potential disappearance of physical money

Sep 15, 2022
Digital payment methods may render notes and coins obsolete in the United Kingdom and turn it into a cashless economy.
As many as 8 million Britons are thought to depend on physical money because they don’t have an internet connection, a smartphone or digital skills.
Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

Should Russians be allowed to vacation in Europe while the Kremlin wages war on Ukraine?

Sep 6, 2022
The EU is to make it tougher for Russians to holiday in Europe as a sanction against the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. But why not a total ban?
Finland is among the five European Union member countries pushing for a blanket ban on travel visas for Russian citizens. Above, travelers at Finland's Helsinki Airport in August.
Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP via Getty Images

Can't pay won't pay: Brits join civil disobedience campaign over soaring energy prices

Aug 23, 2022
A new movement aims to persuade 1 million households to refuse to pay skyrocketing bills, driven by imbalance in natural gas supplies.
A natural gas processing plant and terminals in England. The average UK household energy bill has rocketed by over 200% in the past year, with more increases looming.
Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Will “deprinting” reduce the paper industry’s carbon footprint?

Aug 17, 2022
A new device will allow the same sheet of paper to be erased and reprinted 10 times, cutting waste and carbon emissions.
The cycle of felling trees, transporting them and using fossil fuel-based processes to turn them into pulp for paper is highly polluting.
rustycanuck/Getty Images

Germany under fire from neighbors for its dependence on Russian energy

Aug 3, 2022
Fear that Russia may terminate all natural gas flows to Europe's largest economy is causing friction among EU countries.
Some countries in Eastern Europe objected to Germany building ties with Russia around natural gas imports via the Nord Stream pipeline. Now, Germany is scrambling to prepare for additional supply cuts.
Odd Anderson/AFP via Getty Images

Could the sand battery make renewable energy more dependable?

Jul 29, 2022
A start-up in Finland unveils the world’s first commercial heat storage system using sand to solve the problem of the variability of solar and wind power.
The sand battery at Kankaanpaa in southwest Finland.
Courtesy Polar Night Energy

Is the eurozone heading for another debt crisis?

Jul 20, 2022
As borrowing costs rise across the 19 nations that use the euro, worries about the currency bloc's stability grow.
The European Central Bank plans to tighten interest rates to battle inflation, but that could burden Europe's weaker economies.
Daniel Roland/AFP via Getty Images