Michael Cooke is a module leader. He retired mid-2018 from the position of Editor of the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper and digital publisher. He worked on London’s Fleet Street before moving to Canada as a young man, joining the Star as a copy editor. In 1992, he moved to the Edmonton Journal as managing editor. He became Editor-in-chief at The Province in Vancouver in 1995, and Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times in 2000. He was appointed Editor-in Chief of the New York Daily News in 2005, later returning to Chicago as VP Editorial of the Sun-Times News Group, leading editorial on more than 100 titles, and later resuming the role of Sun-Times Editor as well.

Michael has traveled extensively on media development work and given presentations and many journalism training sessions, primarily in Asia and Africa. Most notably, he has volunteered in several countries for the non-profit organization Journalists for Human Rights, of which he became chairman in 2018.