Thomas D. Gommes
Founder and Publisher. Thomas D. Gommes is a former corporate lawyer and a graduate of the Masters’ program at The Columbia University School of Journalism. In December 2009, aiming to combine the best elements of professional journalism with the best elements of reader interaction, he launched The Periscope Post. Born in London of Greek and French parents, he moved to New York for his Bachelor’s degree at Columbia University.  After graduation, he obtained his J.D. degree from Columbia Law School, where he served as Senior Editor on The Columbia Law Review, followed by some years at the firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore where he practiced litigation and corporate law before leaving in favour of journalism and a return to Europe.

L.R. McRobbie
Editor-In-Chief. Also a graduate of Columbia University School of Journalism, L.R. spent four years down in the trenches as editor at a Boston-based weekly paper before embarking on her freelance career. Her work has appeared in newspapers across the US and Canada, including the Boston Herald, the Arizona Republic, the Chicago Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, and others, as well as in several US magazines, including Mental Floss and American Way. Linda, who has lived in various places in the US, has been based in London since February 2009.

Archie Thomas
Senior Contributing Editor. A politics graduate of Bristol University, Archie worked for the BBC and Film4 before joining the London bureau of Hollywood trade paper Variety, where he spent eight years, rising to Foreign Correspondent. He has covered arts festivals ranging from the Cannes International Film Festival to the Hay Festival and has appeared as a guest commentator on TV shows. As a freelance writer, he has written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph. Archie writes a personal blog, has made short documentary films for The Guardian, and is a published poet.

Philip Womack
Contributing editor. Philip Womack graduated from Oriel College, Oxford in Classics and English in 2003. He worked at Literary Review for several years, where he is now a Contributing Editor. He is the author of two critically acclaimed novels for children, The Liberators and The Other Book, and has written for a wide variety of papers and magazines, including The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times, The Times, The Times Literary Supplement and The Spectator. He is also a Contributing Editor to PORT magazine.

Hannah Davies
Contributing editor.  After graduating from Jesus College, Cambridge with a BA in German and Russian and an MPhil in European Literature, Hannah Davies worked in book publishing for several years before moving into journalism. Her early writing career took in celebrity gossip, arts previews, mortgages and career profiles, and she spent a year at the London Review of Books. In 2009 she went freelance; her work appears in a range of publications, including The Times Literary Supplement, The Lady and The Sunday Times Style.

Enrique Acevedo Quintana
Editorial advisor. Enrique Acevedo is an anchor and national correspondent at NBC’s hispanic national network, Telemundo. Acevedo joined from the Televisa network in Mexico City where he was an anchor and reporter. He was also a correspondent for Televisa’s investigative news magazine “Los Reporteros”  and has worked as a senior reporter for Televisa’s special investigations bureau. In 2007 and again in 2009 he was awarded the national journalism award presented by Mexico’s National Press Club. He was also the recipient of the prestigious Pagues Llergo award in 2007. He writes a weekly column for Mexican daily La Razón. Enrique holds a BA in International Relations from El Tec de Monterrey and a Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York.

Eleonore Marchand
Editorial advisor. International editions editor at Hearst Magazines, Eleonore obtained her B.A. in Philosophy from Georgetown University, and her MSc from Columbia University’s Journalism School, where she was a contributing writer at The New York Review of Magazines. A long-distance member of The Periscope Post editorial advisory committee, she is currently based in New York City and works with over 25 editions of Harper’s Bazaar worldwide.

Alessandro Rampietti
Editorial advisor. Senior Producer and coordinator of the New York Bureau of Al Jazeera English and member of Periscope’s editorial advisory committee. Alessandro is an Italian-American journalist currently based in New York. He obtained his university degree in Rome in Communication Sciences and his Master’s in Journalism from Columbia University’s School of Journalism. Over the course of his career he has worked for web, radio, print and television. His work in Italy has appeared in the daily newspaper La Repubblica and on public television station RAI. His expertise ranges from foreign policy to labour and immigration and since joining Al Jazeera he has reported on and produced features and documentaries in North and South America covering, among other topics, the American elections, global warming, and Colombia’s civil war.