Team

Ayo Johnson, Editor and Publisher

Ayo Johnson is a veteran journalist based in Bermuda and West Africa. A Sierra Leonean and Bermudian with 20 years combined experience in communications, journalism and media production, Ayo has won two Ridgeway Awards for Journalistic Excellence and in 2012 was named Journalist of the Year by the Bermudian magazine Best of Bermuda Award scheme. Human rights advocacy is Ayo’s other passion. He has served on the board of Amnesty International Bermuda and managed a number of human rights campaigns.Ayo is a member of the National Union of Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, the International Press Institute and the Media Council of Bermuda.

Email: ayo@think.bm

PGP Fingerprint: E64A C794 7CAB C43F E686 0AB7 1884 CD92 CE3C A232

PGP Public Key: CE3CA232.asc

---

Glenn Jones, Guest Editor

Glenn Jones is an EMMY Award-winning broadcast journalist with a decade of broadcasting experience. He left the journalism field in 2007 to become Press Secretary to the Premier of Bermuda where his responsibilities included speechwriting, political communication strategies and media relations. Following almost three years in that role, which included a General Election victory, Glenn re-entered the private sector as a media corporate executive. Today he is general manager of MediaHouse, overseeing operations in Bermuda at Island Press, Bermuda Sun and bermuda.com.

---

Craig Simmons, Associate Editor

Craig Simmons is senior lecturer in economics at Bermuda College. His teaching experience at Bermuda College includes courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics, international economics and ecological economics.Craig was a member of the inaugural Sustainable Development Roundtable created by Cabinet in the spring of 2005; the Energy Commission, a regulatory body, in 2012; and the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission set up by the Minister of Finance in April 2013.Craig is also a consultant to a number of firms in the financial services, real estate and public utilities sectors.  In 2013, he was a contributing author to Offshore Commercial Law in Bermuda, a compilation of authored titles edited by Chief Justice Ian Kawaley.

---

Benedict Greening, Associate Editor

Benedict Greening grew up in Bermuda and started working as a journalist at The Royal Gazette at the age of 17.  He continued to work during his gap year and during school and university holidays there until 2004. He has subsequently worked as a journalist in the United Kingdom, first for The Fleet magazine in north London, then for the Willesden and Brent Times and Kilburn Times between 2010 and 2012. From August 2012 until the present, he has worked as an editor for Mail Online India. He also completed his doctoral thesis, which focused on Bermudian history between 1963 and 1977, at the London School of Economics in January 2014.

---

Najib Chentouf, Associate Editor

Najib Chentouf is a patriotic Bermudian from Southampton. He is passionate about social justice and has expertise in fiscal transparency and accountability. Najib has a flair for interviewing individuals across social, economic, and political borders and has the ability to amalgamate conflicting stories and opinions into a telling narrative. He has been able to actively pursue his talents while working in the non-profit industry as a founding member of The Chewstick Movement, and Assistant Director of The Chewstick Foundation.Along with Najib’s non-profit experience, he also spent many years working for the Bermuda government at The Office of the Auditor General, The Accountant General’s Department, and the Department of Airport Operations as the Department’s Financial Controller.In 2003/4 Najib was the host of ‘Tanzaoui Takes On’; a weekly one-hour satirical television show aired on FreshTV. Najib wrote the show’s monologues and questions, which led to thought provoking interviews with politicians, activists, artists and community leaders. He is interested in asking the questions ordinary folks ask behind closed doors. Najib trained as a CPA candidate at Deloitte & Touche and completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and International Business at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane Morocco.

---

Yesha Townsend, Journalist-in-training

Yesha is a pen swindler who sometimes poses as a writer, a poet, a composer, a rapper and a cartoonist, sometimes all at once. She obtained her first degree in music composition and balances her life between writing and writing music.

She has previously been published in ‘Composed’ a Minnesota literary journal and more recently “Take this Journey with Me”, Bermuda’s anthology of Memoir and non-fiction; as well as a couple of self published poetry efforts that if you ask nicely she may just give you.

---

Thoshlae Smith, Journalist-in-training

Thoshlae Smith is a fourth year Journalism (Honors) student at University of Kings College, Halifax. She has served as an opinions contributor for The Dalhousie Gazette and volunteers at Dalhousie’s radio station CKDU 88.1 FM where she is featured on Voice of Eritrea.

Her experience includes covering a municipal election for The Chronicle Herald, and a work shadow stint with the Bermuda Sun.
The former Head Girl of Cedarbridge Academy was named the 2011 recipient of the Joseph Johnson Scholarship before heading off to university. Thoshlae is a member of the Vernon Temple AME church and her hobbies include reading, writing, yoga and Tae Kwon Do.

---

Makeem “Haz” Bartley, Illustrator

Passionate about design since high school, Makeem is no stranger to busting his brain; thinking of new ways to convey his (or anyone’s) vision into visual form in either Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign. He is known for his sharp simplicity, obsession with symmetry, a “cartoony” personality and a sincere smile to match.A minimalist at heart, Makeem understands the power of “less” and loves that the design world is evolving way from being “unnecessarily complicated”. He finds himself zoning in on logo/icon design, packaging and vectoring/illustration, but dares to push out of any box.

He does plenty of freelance work wherever and wherever available, and is 1/4th of the infamous BERMEMES (Bermuda Memes) team, constantly developing on an endless pool of ideas. Overall, he craves to be able to design his world around him on a daily basis, with or without a computer at hand.

---

Glen Tucker, Photographer

With over twenty years of photography under his belt, Glenn Tucker has served as Senior Photographer for Bermuda’s daily newspaper, The Royal Gazette and shot on location in Cuba, United States, Canada, and England.His work has appeared in magazines such as the RG, Bottom Line, Architectural Digest, and Cliché Magazine. He has won two Ridgeway awards (2004 and 2005) for photojournalism in Bermuda and has been commended by the Government of Bermuda.

He now serves as Chief Photographer for Manada International.

---