Yalda Hakim is an award-winning foreign correspondent and currently anchors the flagship program ‘Impact with Yalda Hakim’ on BBC World News.  In addition to her presenting duties, Yalda continues to deliver hard-hitting journalism not only for the Our World strand but also across BBC News on both television and radio.

Her interview with President Trump’s National Security Advisor HR McMaster made global headlines when he accepted that Russia had interfered in the 2016 US elections. Yalda has reported extensively on the rise and fall of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq. She has traveled to the world’s youngest nation South Sudan which has been embroiled in a brutal civil war. She reported that more than 4 million people were on the brink of famine in the devastated country. She has also highlighted the plight of people in the secretive state of Eritrea, reported from Turkey following the failed coup attempt, covered the aftermath of the earthquake in Nepal, kidnappings by drug cartels in Mexico, and jihadism in Sweden. She has investigated and reported on people-trafficking and torture of Ethiopian migrants in Yemen and following the Bangladesh garment factory, collapse uncovered workers still being put at risk in unsafe premises. 

Yalda also conducts high profile interviews with global leaders and public figures including Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, Hollywood actor, and director Angelina Jolie, the Dalai Lama, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella,

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to name a few. Yalda often moderates and chairs high profile events including the Nobel Peace Prize Summit, World Economic Forum, Halifax International Security Forum, and the Raisina Dialogue in Delhi.