Paul Vallely - Leading, award-winning writer on Africa and development issues who was born in Middlesbrough. Paul Vallely is also associate editor of the Independent. He has worked as a theatre critic, war reporter, religious commentator and foreign correspondent.
Vallely was the The Times correspondent in Ethiopia during the great famine of 1984/5. He was commended as International Reporter of the Year for his reports which Bob Geldof described as "vivid, intelligent, moving and brave."
Steph McGovern - Steph McGovern is business presenter for BBC Breakfast TV. She grew up in Middlesbrough, and attended Kader Primary School and Macmillan Academy, where she is now a governor. Over the past 10 years Steph has reported from all the big financial events across the world, most recently from the eurozone crisis summits in Brussels and the Italian debt meetings in Rome.