Ruaridh Arrow trained as a newspaper journalist in Scotland winning the Guardian British Student Reporter of the Year award in 2004. In 2005 he was one of the youngest producers at Sky News in London before being asked to produce investigative programme Dispatches on Channel 4. He went on to work for BBC News, National Geographic and The Financial Times. In 2008 He was asked to carry out a number of consultancy projects advising Afghan satellite news channels broadcasting from Kabul and contributed to the Department for International Development’s “Communications for Stabilisation” project. He was a Political Analyst for the Shadow Home Secretary in the British Parliament working on policing and security issues in the run up to the 2010 General Election.
In 2009 he began work on a feature length documentary about the work of Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and nonviolent revolution guru Dr Gene Sharp. During the Egyptian Revolution in 2011 Ruaridh was detained by Egyptian secret police who confiscated his camera equipment. After being freed he continued to report for the BBC during the most intense week of the uprising, sleeping alongside protestors in Tahrir Square. His film How to Start a Revolution went on to win eight international film festival awards and a Scottish BAFTA. So far it has been translated into 12 languages and has screened in more than 30 countries becoming at one point hailed as the unofficial film of the Occupy Movement.
Ruaridh has talked on nonviolent revolution and civil resistance at Universities across the United States including Harvard, Stanford and MIT. He has also presented to TEDx San Francisco, Amnesty International, The UK Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues, newly appointed Bishops of the Church of England at Canterbury Cathedral, Occupy camps across the US and Europe and high ranking military officers at the UK Joint Services Command Course at Shrivenham.
From 2012-2013 he was a Research Affiliate in Revolutionary Warfare at Harvard Law School.
In 2009 he began work on a feature length documentary about the work of Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and nonviolent revolution guru Dr Gene Sharp. During the Egyptian Revolution in 2011 Ruaridh was detained by Egyptian secret police who confiscated his camera equipment. After being freed he continued to report for the BBC during the most intense week of the uprising, sleeping alongside protestors in Tahrir Square. His film How to Start a Revolution went on to win eight international film festival awards and a Scottish BAFTA. So far it has been translated into 12 languages and has screened in more than 30 countries becoming at one point hailed as the unofficial film of the Occupy Movement.
Ruaridh has talked on nonviolent revolution and civil resistance at Universities across the United States including Harvard, Stanford and MIT. He has also presented to TEDx San Francisco, Amnesty International, The UK Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues, newly appointed Bishops of the Church of England at Canterbury Cathedral, Occupy camps across the US and Europe and high ranking military officers at the UK Joint Services Command Course at Shrivenham.
From 2012-2013 he was a Research Affiliate in Revolutionary Warfare at Harvard Law School.
What the audience can expect
Ruaridh talks us through the adventure story of the modern nonviolent revolutions from the point of view of the activists themselves and reveals a secret world of unlikely characters who work together to help bring down dictatorships. What does it really take to start a revolution and what can we learn for our own personal and professional lives? It’s an adventure story that involves a Vietnam War hero, A Burmese Miss World contestant turned guerilla fighter, an eccentric collector of Gandhi memorabilia and a London sex shop.
This is the story behind the Arab Spring. You’ll never look at Revolution quite the same way again.
This is the story behind the Arab Spring. You’ll never look at Revolution quite the same way again.
Presentation Approach
As well as keynote or motivational presentations, Ruaridh is also available for media training events for clients whose emergency planning requires key personnel to deal with high profile national and international 24 hour news events. This includes disaster simulation, role play, social media responses, on camera tuition and briefings on the operations and procedures of the key UK and International news organisations.
