After receiving his
National Certificate for the Training of Journalists from
Cardiff University, Cole was hired by the Caters News Agency, As a non-union member under contract Cole was brought in to anchor the flagship
Six O'Clock and
Ten O'Clock News on
BBC1, temporarily replacing regular newsreaders
Sian Williams,
George Alagiah and
Huw Edwards. In the year 2000, BBC management approached Cole about creating a new show for the network, offering him a choice between business and
Information Technology (IT). He chose the latter, and
BBC Click Online was born. Cole interviewed some of the biggest names in tech at the time, including
Bill Gates and
Larry Ellison. When
Al Jazeera launched its
English-language service in 2006, along with other British broadcasters like
David Frost, Cole was “quickly snapped up”, as senior anchor and news editor, in part due to the exposure he received during the BBC strike. Cole also reported from the field on meetings of the
Group of Seven, the
World Economic Forum in
Davos, and the
black market sale of antiquities in
Bulgaria. From 2019 until his retirement from broadcast television in 2022, Cole was the executive producer and host of
The Agenda with Stephen Cole, the flagship current affairs program of
CGTN Europe, the Chinese state broadcaster. Since his retirement, Cole continues to work as a guest lecturer, event host and moderator. == Personal life ==