Alphonse Hardel

Hardel holds a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Ecole Centrale Lyon in France and a Master in European Business from ESCP Business School.⁠[1]

Hardel joined Reuters in Geneva in 2005 and has since spent most of his time in New York. He held roles in sales, product, and partnerships, in which he implemented the partnership strategy for Reuters Connect, secured channel partnerships, conceived and launched a range of news agency products, conceived and launched a new commercial model for digital video, and negotiated contracts with key customers and partners; he also led business development for the agency business and was for a time interim head of sales for Agency.⁠[2][1][3][3]

In May 2019, Reuters appointed Hardel to the newly created role of global head of business development and strategy, responsible for supporting and defining the overall strategic direction of Reuters’ business and seeking growth through a variety of channels. Michael Friedenberg, then president of Reuters, said Hardel had a consistent track record of securing large strategic partnerships, identifying new business opportunities, and bringing new services to market. Hardel said he saw excellent opportunities for growth in building strategy, developing new ways of partnering with the industry, and serving new and existing customers.⁠[2][2][2][2][2]

As VP, Business Development and Strategy, he headed a team that defined Reuters’ strategic priorities and pursued their implementation through strategic partnerships, organic initiatives, and acquisitions; during his tenure Reuters acquired four businesses. He was also responsible for the Program Delivery and Data & Analytics teams.⁠[1][1][1]

In January 2024, Reuters announced that Hardel would become head of its news agency business, effective March 15, succeeding Sue Brooks, who had announced her retirement in July 2023; Brooks worked with him during the transition through March. Paul Bascobert, then president of Reuters, said Hardel’s deep knowledge of the Agency business and his expertise at serving customers made him the right person to lead and grow the business. The team he leads comprises the sales, marketing, proposition, partnerships, and strategy functions of the international news agency.⁠[3][3][3][3][1]

On October 28, 2025, Fu Hua, president of Xinhua News Agency, met with Hardel in Beijing. Hardel said both sides share common concerns in responsibly leveraging artificial intelligence to empower areas such as news and communication, and that he looked forward to continuing the successful partnership with Xinhua.⁠[4][4][4]

In May 2026, Reuters switched to blocking AI crawlers by default, allowing access only to crawlers on an allowlist. Hardel said in June 2026 that robots.txt is non-binding but signals that anyone who wants the content should come and talk first; after monitoring crawler activity for two years, Reuters was able to determine which crawlers it could block without affecting revenue, was now blocking “hundreds” of crawlers, and the reduction in non-human traffic was also saving considerable content-serving costs.⁠[5][5][5][5][5]

Reuters: Official website: https://reutersagency.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]