ITV Director To Help Choose New BBC Chairman
The Government has brought in a senior member of the ITV board of directors to help in the search for a hard-hitting candidate to take over from Gavyn Davies as chairman of the BBC.
Sir George Russell, a senior non-executive director of ITV and former chairman of the Independent Television Commission, will sit on a four-person panel that will help to choose a new chairman.
It is understood that seven shortlisted candidates will be interviewed tomorrow in an exhaustive process due to be overseen by Sue Street, permanent secretary at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
Those in the running for the high-profile position include veteran broadcaster, David Dimbleby; Camelot chairman, Michael Grade; former ITC chief executive, Patricia Hodgson; ex-Financial Times editor, Richard Lambert; chairman of the English Speaking Union, Lord Watson; former BBC vice-chairman, Baroness Young; and Abbey chairman, Lords Burns (see Shortlist For BBC Chairman Whittled Down To Seven).
The apparent conflict of interests between Russell’s role at ITV and his position as a BBC chairmanship assessor is understood to be causing concern amongst candidates. A representative of one of those shortlisted told the Times: “It is extraordinary that a director of ITV should be helping to choose the next chairman of the BBC.”
However, a Whitehall source claimed there was nothing strange about the move given that ITV is also a public service broadcaster. He said: “It would have been strange to have someone from the BBC on the panel for this post.”
The appointment panel, which has been drawn-up by senior Cabinet Office officials, will choose two candidates to put forward to Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, who will then make a recommendation to be confirmed by the Queen.
One of the new chairman’s first tasks will be to appoint a director general to succeed Greg Dyke, who stepped down earlier this year following the highly critical findings of the Hutton report. The entire BBC board of governors came close to resigning in the wake of the report, which propelled the Corporation in to the worst crisis in its history (see Entire BBC Board Of Governors Came Close To Quitting).
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