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Ian Woods

Ian Woods

Ian Woods is Australia Correspondent, as well as monitoring stories in the wider Asia-Pacific region.  He is based in Sydney where he edits, and often films, his own stories. 

Being a keen golfer, his favourite story there so far was visiting the world’s longest golf course – which is 1800 miles long across South Australia. 

In May 2007 he was the first journalist to interview Kate and Gerry McCann about the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine in Portugal, and later that year he undertook a rare journey through the Northwest Passage in Canada, revealing the extent of how global warming was dramatically reducing the amount of Arctic ice.

He is a former United States Correspondent, and has also reported from Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, during Israel’s conflict with Hizbollah.

Joining Sky News in 1995 as a Sports Correspondent, Ian covered the England football team in Euro ‘96 and the World Cup in 1998, as well as the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. In 1998 he was promoted to Sports Editor.

He switched to News Correspondent in 2001, and reported from the United States on the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in New York and Washington.

In March 2002 he was appointed US Correspondent, where he continued to report on President Bush’s War on Terror. Ian spent much of his time at the United Nations, covering the diplomatic arguments which preceded the war in Iraq, and was based at the Pentagon during the conflict.

Ian travelled across the US with John Kerry during the 2004 Election, and returned in 2008 to report from Chicago on the night Barack Obama was elected as America’s first black President.  Ian was based in America for four years, covering stories as diverse as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the arrest of Michael Jackson on child abuse charges.

Ian began his career in broadcasting at a Coventry radio station, Mercia Sound, where his role as a journalist included presenting a Heavy Metal programme called Maximum Volume. But his favourite task was reporting from inside the Wembley dressing room as Coventry City celebrated their FA Cup victory over Spurs. Ian remains a passionate supporter of the team.

He subsequently moved to BBC Midlands as a TV reporter based in Nottingham. During his time there he helped the programme win two Royal Television Society Awards for best Regional News coverage.

During his time in the Midlands he was the first journalist to report from the scene of the Kegworth Air Disaster - a broadcast which led to him being invited to report for BBC network news programmes in London. Prior to joining Sky News, he presented East Midlands Today for five years.