Janet Dignan is a graduate of Otago University in New Zealand, where she read philosophy.

From 1979 to1982 she was head of information at Linklaters, with responsibility for internal and external information resources for its offices in London, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Brussels.

From 1982 to 1990 Janet was with the Economist Group in London in a range of roles, initially as managing editor of Economist directories, then as commissioning editor of special financial reports. In 1995 she launched and edited City Changes, a newsletter about London’s Big Bang; and in 1997 she launched IR Magazine, which she continued to edit for more than 20 years.

In 1993 Janet and Ian Richman founded Cross Border Publishing (now IR Media Group), to continue publishing IR Magazine and to launch other publications, events, websites and other digital properties.