ELLIOTT GOTKINE

Journalist reporter, Corporate Speaking Coach and MC

Elliott Gotkine is a globetrotting, polyglot journalist, master of ceremonies and speaking coach to the CEOs.

In a 25-year career spanning three continents, Elliott has worked as a correspondent for the BBC , Bloomberg Television and CNN. Along the way, he’s interviewed multiple world leaders, including Shimon Peres and Hugo Chavez (whose security detail mistook Elliott’s mic for a gun, leading to almost tragicomic consequences); billionaires, such as Sheldon Adelson and Patrick Drahi; and Nobel Laureates, such as Mario Vargas Llosa. Interviewing the latter on Christmas Eve 2002 was especially poignant for Elliott: just eight years earlier he was reading the Peruvian novelist’s books for his Spanish A-level.

Other career highlights include the time Elliott embedded himself with Peru’s answer to Jerry Springer - while she was under house arrest. The local press got wind of Elliott’s presence - and concocted a rumour that he was the 50-something diva’s lover. Then there was his voyage on a Bolivian naval vessel on Lake Titicaca - which, since it’s landlocked, just chugged forlornly around the lake. He was outside the hospital in Buenos Aires the first time Maradona nearly died. And was there by the Dead Sea among scores of ordinary, naked people painted white for the artist Spencer Tunik.

He lives in London with his two children. He now freelances for CNN, most recently out of the network’s Jerusalem bureau.