Charlotte Glennie

Charlotte Glennie was New Zealand’s first, and still only, full-time Asia correspondent. She reported on many of the region’s defining moments such as, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Sichuan earthquake, North Korea, China’s transformation and refugee crises across Asia.

But long before those assignments, Glennie survived a near-fatal fall from a cliff in Croatia. That experience left her with a profound appreciation for life’s fragility. It also shaped the way she approached journalism. Behind every headline, she learnt, was a person whose story deserved to be told.

That perspective defined her reporting. She covered devastating disasters, political crackdowns and humanitarian crises with equal attention to those living through them. Whether meeting families searching for loved ones after the Indian Ocean tsunami or refugees rebuilding their lives, Glennie looked beyond the immediate news to understand its lasting human impact.

Her reporting earned New Zealand’s highest award for television journalism. The Government also recognised her tsunami coverage with its Special Service Medal. Charlotte Glennie later joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as China Correspondent before moving to the BBC in Singapore. After more than two decades in journalism, she brought that experience to the not-for-profit sector. There, she led media and emergency communications for UNICEF Australia and The Smith Family.

Today, Glennie draws on those experiences to explore leadership under pressure, ethical storytelling and the importance of curiosity. She examines how major events shape societies, and why context matters in an increasingly complex world. Decades spent reporting across Asia also give her a rare perspective on the region’s growing influence and the human stories often overlooked beneath global headlines.

These experiences inspired Charlotte Glennie’s bestselling memoir, Every Second Counts. It became New Zealand’s bestselling non-fiction title on release and was later named to the Whitcoulls Top 100 Books list.