News

Souster gets head hunted by City head hunters

Rugby’s press pack for the Six Nations Championship that begins tomorrow includes another significant change, with Mark Souster moving on from being The Times’ correspondent.

Souster is a past winner at the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards, having won the Scoop of the Year in 2011 for his Rugby World Cup revelations of leaked RFU documents, which our judges at that time said “led the news agenda for a fortnight”.

Mark Souster: making the move from The Times to The City
Mark Souster: making the move from The Times to The City

Another SJA member and multiple British Sports Journalism Awards-winner, Owen Slot, takes over from Souster as rugby correspondent.

Souster is leaving journalism, to take a job in “The City where I hope the streets are paved with gold”, he said.

He has joined the Inzito Partnership, which describes itself as “a premium executive search firm advising the most prominent global corporations and financial institutions on their most important human capital decisions”. So a firm of City head hunters.

Souster is to be the head of the sports practice at Inzito, who say that his “extensive knowledge of sport and particularly the business of sport and his wealth of contacts, leaves him well-placed to meet the demands and needs of governing bodies and organisations”.

Souster had worked for the BBC and Sky before joining The Times 15 years ago. He had been the paper’s rugby correspondent for last five years. The final game he covered was Leicester’s Heineken Cup tie with Ulster.

“Rugby is in my blood and I love what it stands for,” he said. “But after 23 years it is time to expand horizons.”

Souster’s new role has not stopped him making predictions for the outcome of this season’s Six Nations, though: he believes England’s back line is “too callow”, especially with an opening match in Paris tomorrow, and he reckons Wales can win a third successive title.

Earlier this week, we reported the appointment of Steve James as the Sunday Telegraph’s new rugby correspondent.

UPCOMING SJA EVENTS

Mon Mar 24: SJA British Sports Journalism Awards, Grand Connaught Rooms, London
Mon Apr 14: SJA Spring Golf Day: Croham Hurst GC, Surrey. Booking details to be announced