Director-General of the BBC
Director-General of the BBC | |
---|---|
Incumbent The Lord Hall of Birkenhead since April 2013 | |
Member of | BBC Board Executive Committee |
Reports to | Parliament of the United Kingdom |
Appointer | BBC Board |
Formation | 1927 |
First holder | Sir John Reith |
Salary | £450,000 |
The Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and (from 1994) editor-in-chief of the BBC.
The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC (for the period of 1927 to 2007) and then the BBC Trust (from 2007 to 2017). Since 2017 the Director-General is appointed by the BBC Board.
To date sixteen individuals, all of whom have been men, have been appointed Director-General, plus an additional two who were appointed in an acting capacity only. The current Director-General is Tony Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead, who was appointed from the chief executiveship of the Royal Opera House, which position he had held from April 2001. He is the first peer to hold the position (Lords Reith and Birt having been raised to the peerage only after their tenures had ended).
List of incumbents
Director General | Tenure | Time in post |
---|---|---|
Sir John Reith | 1927–1938 | 11 years |
Sir Frederick Ogilvie | 1938–1942 | 4 years |
Sir Cecil Graves and Robert W. Foot | 1942–1943 | 1 year |
Robert W. Foot | 1943–1944 | 1 year |
Sir William Haley | 1944–1952 | 8 years |
Sir Ian Jacob | 1952–1959 | 7 years |
Sir Hugh Greene | 1960–1969 | 9 years |
Sir Charles Curran | 1969–1977 | 8 years |
Sir Ian Trethowan | 1977–1982 | 5 years |
Alasdair Milne | 1982–1987 | 5 years |
Sir Michael Checkland | 1987–1992 | 5 years |
Sir John Birt | 1992–2000 | 8 years |
Greg Dyke | 2000–2004 | 4 years |
Mark Byford* | January – June 2004 | 5 months |
Mark Thompson | 2004–2012 | 8 years |
George Entwistle | 2012 | 54 days |
Tim Davie* | 2012–2013 | 141 days |
Tony Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead | April 2013 – present | Incumbent |
An asterisk indicates that the incumbent was temporarily appointed as Acting Director General.
References
External links
- The BBC press office's biographical list of its Directors General
- BBC director-general-portraits