Matthew Symonds

Matthew John Symonds was born on December 20, 1953. He is a British journalist and has served as the executive director of the Larry Ellison Foundation since 2018. Symonds co-founded *The Independent* newspaper in 1986.

He is the son of John Beavan and Anne Symonds. His father, John Beavan, was the London editor of *The Guardian*, and his mother, Anne Symonds, was a broadcaster for BBC World Service. Symonds has three children with his wife, Alison. In addition, he has a daughter named Carrie Symonds, born in 1988 with Josephine McAfee, a lawyer associated with *The Independent*. Carrie Symonds is married to Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Symonds's career began with work for the Mirror Group, followed by positions at the *Financial Times* and *The Daily Telegraph*. He joined *The Daily Telegraph* in November 1981 as an economics leader writer. In 1986, along with Andreas Whittam Smith and Stephen Glover—former colleagues from *The Daily Telegraph*—Symonds co-founded *The Independent*. These colleagues had left the Telegraph towards the end of Lord Hartwell’s ownership of the paper.

After leaving *The Independent*, Symonds was appointed strategy director of BBC World Service Television. From 1996 to 2018, he was part of the staff at *The Economist*. During his tenure there, he received the Wincott Prize for financial journalism in 1998. His roles at *The Economist* included political editor, technology editor, and ultimately defense and diplomatic editor.

In 1996, Symonds described himself as an economic liberal who believed in the market, individual liberty, and freedom. He stated that effective and humane solutions to societal issues could be achieved by providing people with as much information and power over their own lives as possible.

He authored a publication titled *Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle*, published by Simon & Schuster in 2003.

This biographical account includes verifiable information derived from available sources regarding Symonds's birth, family background, career milestones, and published works.