New BBC Chief Begins To Fashion Senior Management Team
Incoming BBC director general Tony Hall has named James Purnell as director of strategy and digital and has expanded Tim Davie’s BBC Worldwide role. Meanwhile, former head of news, Helen Boaden, is going back to radio. The shifts come as Hall prepares to take over at the head of the broadcaster in March. He does so following the late-2012 sex-abuse and editorial scandals that plagued the corporation and resulted in the resignation of former director general George Entwistle after only 54 days on the job. (The moves also come one day after it was revealed that civil claims have been filed against the BBC on behalf of 31 alleged victims of late host Jimmy Savile.) Hall today said, “I am building a senior team that will define the BBC and public service broadcasting for the next decade. It will be a team that is made up of outstanding talent from outside the BBC combined with the best people from within.” He noted that more changes are to come in the next months, notably the appointment of a new head of news and a new director of BBC Television.
Boaden, who stepped aside in November amid an inquiry into the controversial cancellation of an investigative report by the BBC’s flagship current affairs program, Newsnight, later returned to her post but will now segue out of the division, becoming director of BBC Radio. She was formerly a controller of BBC Radio 4.
Davie, who was slotted in as interim director general following Entwistle’s resignation, will take over as CEO of BBC Worldwide in a move that had been postponed by the crisis. He will also have expanded duties to incorporate a more strategic global perspective, Hall said.
Purnell joins from production company Rare Day where he is a senior producer. He’s also a former Secretary of State for Culture, and is on the board of the British Film Institute and the Royal National Theatre. He was previously head of corporate planning at the BBC in the 1990s.
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