James Mates

James Mates is an ITV News Presenter, Conference Presenter and Facilitator.

Educated at Marlborough College, Farnham College, and Leeds University. Mates graduated in 1983, with an Honours degree in International History and Politics.

James Mates joined ITN in 1983 as an editorial trainee and was appointed scriptwriter in the ITV newsroom two years later. In 1986, James was made a general reporter at ITN.

Amongst his first assignments on becoming a reporter was to cover the Zeebrugge ferry disaster. He spent five weeks in Zeebrugge in 1987 during the operation to raise the capsized ferry ‘Herald of Free Enterprise’.

In 1989, he was made Tokyo Correspondent of the World News on Channel 4’s first early morning service, Channel Four Daily.

In 1991, James was the North of England Correspondent for ITV, and later that year became Moscow Correspondent until 1993.

During his time as Moscow Correspondent one of James’ reports, on the use of ice as an anaesthetic in a Russian hospital, was awarded the Prix du Press Club de France at the 7th International Scoop & News Festival of Angers, France. The same story, together with a report on the Russian economy, won Mates a silver medal at the 35th Annual Film & Television Festival of New York.

From 1993 until 1996, Mates was ITN’s Diplomatic Editor.

His many assignments have numbered Kosovo, where he was during the NATO invasion of the country; former Yugoslavia where he covered the 1996 refugee crisis; Moscow during President Yeltsin’s attempt to put down the uprising in Chechnya; and Rwanda where he reported on the Central African Republic’s genocidal civil war. As the only television journalist left in the capital Kigali in 1994, Mates watched the city fall to the rebel army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. He also reported on the slaughter of countless soldiers and civilians and the plight of the 700,000 refugees who fled the carnage. ITV News won a BAFTA for its coverage of the genocide.

James also won a joint Silver Medal from New York for his 1996 coverage of the refugee crisis in former Yugoslavia.

James was Washington Correspondent between 1997 and 2001. In 2001 James was awarded the title of Senior Correspondent for ITV News.

In January 2012, Mates became Europe Editor for ITV News.

James is an experienced conference facilitator and conference chair.