[6] After attending university, she joined Schroders Investment Bank, then moved into journalism with the weekly Investors Chronicle.

Her nine-month investigation into financial affairs of media proprietor Robert Maxwell was presented as "The Max Factor", which won an award from the Royal Television Society in 1991.

She has also hosted live interactive debates between audiences in America and in connected studios in Pakistan and Jordan.

She has also presented the BBC's flagship interview programme HARDtalk, and listed her interviewees as including Hindu nationalist Bal Thackeray of the Shiv Sena, musician Phil Collins, writer V. S. Naipaul and Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan.

[2][non-primary source needed] She counts her understanding of economics and mental arithmetic among her strong points.