Hannah MacInnes (DH 2001) is a broadcaster, journalist and podcast host known for her insightful interviews with global changemakers, including Bill Clinton, Dame Jane Goodall and Dame Jacinda Ardern. 

After eight years at BBC Newsnight, where, as Planning Editor, she helped set the news agenda, Hannah is now the main host of the How To Academy's Live Events and Podcast. She can also be heard presenting on Times Radio. Her Klosters Forum Podcast explores solutions to environmental challenges, and she hosts the Nibbies Podcast (The British Book Awards). She has written for Radio Times, the Evening Standard, the TLS and also writes The Conversationist on Substack. 

We turned the tables on her, and our Assistant Head (Sixth Form), Georgina Taylor, interviewed Hannah. She recalled happy memories of her time at Downe House, playing sports, putting on plays, writing sketches and dramas, and spending time with best friends she made for life. A lesson she took from her time at Downe House was to work hard and be prepared for anything.

She also learned how to be politely persistent. One of her colleagues, Jeremy Paxman, said he used to keep his door ajar so he could hear Hannah very politely getting what she needed for that evening’s Newsnight. Although there was one that got away, Sir David Attenborough, who she never managed to persuade, despite a beautifully handwritten invitation. But another lesson she’s still learning is to accept you can’t do everything perfectly.

She encouraged our girls to be ready to go and change the world. Following anthropologist Margaret Mead’s example, she never underestimates the power of a small group of committed people to do just that. And she shared the inspiriting example of Isabella Tree who almost singlehandedly kick-started the rewilding environmental movement from her Sussex home.

Hannah also urged our pupils to be open to opportunities as they present themselves and not worry too much about being sure what they want to do just yet. Hannah was Head of Drama at school, but she took a different path after school. After a trip to Rwanda where she made a documentary, she realised she wanted to tell stories and become a journalist. And while not treading the boards as an actor, she is still jumping up and down on stage every week, interviewing some of the world’s most influential people.

She inspired our pupils to be open to all the possibilities as they embark on their journeys beyond Downe House.