28 Facts About Evan Davis

1.

Evan Harold Davis was born on 8 April 1962 and is an English journalist, presenter for the BBC, and former economist.

2.

Evan Davis has presented Dragons' Den since 2005, and PM since 2018.

3.

In October 2001, Davis took over from Peter Jay as the BBC's economics editor.

4.

Evan Davis left this post in April 2008 to become a presenter on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

5.

On 5 November 2018, Evan Davis began presenting Radio 4's PM programme.

6.

Evan Davis attended Dorking County Grammar School, which in 1976 became The Ashcombe School, Dorking.

7.

Evan Davis then gained a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St John's College, Oxford, which he attended from 1981 to 1984, before obtaining a Master of Public Administration at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University.

8.

Evan Davis began work as an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and while there he was briefly seconded to help officials work on early development of the Community Charge system of local government taxation.

9.

Evan Davis returned to the Institute for Fiscal Studies in 1992, writing a paper on "Britain, Europe and the Square Mile" for the European Policy Forum which argued that British financial prosperity depended on being seen as a bridgehead to the European Union.

10.

In 1993, Evan Davis joined the BBC as an economics correspondent.

11.

Evan Davis worked as economics editor on BBC Two's Newsnight programme from 1997 to 2001.

12.

Evan Davis had a role in shaping the extensive BBC coverage of economics across all the corporation's outputs, including online.

13.

Evan Davis has won several awards including the Work Foundation's Broadcast Journalist of the Year award in 1998,2001 and 2003, and the Harold Wincott Business Broadcaster of the Year award in 2002.

14.

In 2008, Evan Davis was ranked first in the Independent on Sundays "pink list" of the hundred most influential gay and lesbian figures in British society.

15.

On 23 May 2005, Evan Davis crossed picket lines during a day of industrial action by BBC staff over announced job cuts.

16.

Evan Davis was noted for breaking a strike at the BBC, which had been called by the National Union of Journalists: on 6 November 2010, he arrived to present the Today Programme at 3:30am, along with fellow presenter Sarah Montague, although this was not technically crossing a picket line as they arrived before it was formed.

17.

In mid-2007, Evan Davis was a guest presenter on the Today programme for two weeks.

18.

In 2009, Evan Davis said that one of the best things about presenting on the radio is that "you can look things up on Wikipedia while on air".

19.

In 2012, Evan Davis presented Built in Britain which looked at the role of major infrastructure projects in the UK, including examining the impact of the M25 on the town of Ashtead in Surrey where he grew up.

20.

In 2014, Evan Davis presented a BBC Two series Mind the Gap: London vs the Rest in which he explored the economic forces in Britain and why the capital city is so dominant.

21.

On 21 July 2014, it was announced that Evan Davis would replace Jeremy Paxman as presenter of Newsnight starting in autumn 2014.

22.

In 2017 Evan Davis was found to have breached BBC rules on due impartiality in coverage of the 2017 French presidential election on Newsnight, giving the impression that he favoured Emmanuel Macron over Marine Le Pen.

23.

Evan Davis's final show was broadcast on 30 October 2018.

24.

Evan Davis began presenting Radio 4's PM on 5 November 2018.

25.

Evan Davis, who is gay, lives in London with his partner Guillaume Baltz, a French landscape architect.

26.

Evan Davis is the owner of a whippet named Mr Whippy.

27.

Evan Davis is a keen motorcyclist, and was seen riding a Yamaha R6 motorcycle in BBC Two's The City Uncovered.

28.

Evan Davis holds honorary degrees from the Open University; City, University of London; Cardiff University, Coventry University and Aston University.