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16/05/2012
Former Trust Chairman Says BBC Must Look Beyond Its Own For New DG
Former chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, has said the search for the corporation's next director general must look beyond the small group of internal candidates who have applied.
Blamed a failure to institute succession planning Lyons has said he does not believe there is a single standout successor to Mark Thompson within the BBC.
"There isn't one. I don't believe Mark has a preferred candidate either. It is important that there is as wide a search as possible... basically to look elsewhere in the public sector," he said, in an interview for an article in the May edition of Television magazine, the journal of the Royal Television Society.
"You do need someone with management skills ... but someone who is in the public sector," added Lyons, who worked with Thompson for four years when he was trust chairman, until Lord Patten replaced him in May 2011.
"As long as four years ago I was pushing, because we did not feel the BBC Trust had inherited a succession plan. We were pressing him [Thompson] to get one and invest, with the aim of bringing on a handful of candidates – George Entwistle, Tim Davie, Helen Boaden – with the chance to play a bigger role."
Entwistle, Davie, Boaden and Caroline Thomson, BBC chief operating officer, are all understood to have applied for the director general job.
(H/GK)
Blamed a failure to institute succession planning Lyons has said he does not believe there is a single standout successor to Mark Thompson within the BBC.
"There isn't one. I don't believe Mark has a preferred candidate either. It is important that there is as wide a search as possible... basically to look elsewhere in the public sector," he said, in an interview for an article in the May edition of Television magazine, the journal of the Royal Television Society.
"You do need someone with management skills ... but someone who is in the public sector," added Lyons, who worked with Thompson for four years when he was trust chairman, until Lord Patten replaced him in May 2011.
"As long as four years ago I was pushing, because we did not feel the BBC Trust had inherited a succession plan. We were pressing him [Thompson] to get one and invest, with the aim of bringing on a handful of candidates – George Entwistle, Tim Davie, Helen Boaden – with the chance to play a bigger role."
Entwistle, Davie, Boaden and Caroline Thomson, BBC chief operating officer, are all understood to have applied for the director general job.
(H/GK)
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