Nik Gowing was educated at the Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury and Latymer Upper School in London, followed by the University of Bristol. A foreign affairs specialist and presenter at ITN from 1978, Gowing became Diplomatic Editor for the flagship Channel 4 News from 1989. During his time with the BBC, Gowing has since presented The World Today, Europe Direct, HARDtalk, Dateline London, as well as Simpson's World. At the time of the death of Princess Diana in 1997, Gowing anchored coverage for over seven hours, reportedly only having had 40 minutes sleep before being driven back to Television Centre to present. BBC World was being simulcast for the first ever time with the BBC domestic channel BBC One, making up a global audience of around half a billion, to whom he announced her death. Gowing was on air for six hours during the BBC's coverage of the aftermath of the September 11th 2001 attacks, which led to the channel receiving the 2002 Hotbird Award. Gowing was a moderator at the 'Peace to Prosperity' conference, organized by Jared Kushner, part of a US-led initiative to normalize relations between Israel and regional states without reaching a political solution on Palestine.. Gowing expertly steered discussion away from any mention of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, according to Jack Moore, a journalist covering the conference. 'Only God knows how much he was paid,' said Moore. He is also a Member of Council of the Royal United Services Institute. In April 2014 he announced he would be semi-retiring from BBC. Gowing founded the Thinking the Unthinkable project in 2014.
Nik Gowing is the son of Professor Margaret Gowing, author of the two volume work Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, 1945–52, who died in 1998. After attending grammar schools in London and Canterbury, Gowing read geography at the University of Bristol. At university, he worked on local radio; he then joined Thomson Regional Newspapers in Newcastle. He and his wife Judy have two children and live in west London.
