Colin leads the work of BBC Media Action across North Africa. His Tunis-based team implements a portfolio of media-development and media-for-development projects in the spheres of digital literacy, climate resilience, governance, and health. Their award-winning El Kul social media platform for young Libyans, for example, aims to contribute to social cohesion and is currently followed on Facebook by almost one-fifth of the adult population of Libya; its content has reached 24.8 million unique users since 2017.

Previously, Colin led BBC Media Action in Tanzania – where the Haba na Haba national radio discussion show also reached over ten million people – and Cambodia where the Loy9 multimedia youth civic engagement project reached two-thirds of the young people in the country almost all of whom reported the show increased their knowledge and confidence in governance issues. Before joining the BBC, he worked for 11 years in community development, aid, and conflict resolution in Central and South Asia for Mercy Corps, OSCE, and the Soros Foundation.

Colin has an M.A. in International Relations from St. Andrews University and, through a Rotary Peace Fellowship, studied at UC Berkeley and at the University of Queensland, receiving an Advanced Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies. He was also a Jones Scholar in 1996/7 at Emory University where he studied acting and directing.