The BBC has announced a reshuffle of its senior team with expanded roles for Anne Bulford, Charlotte Moore, James Purnell as well as a new director of nations and regions.
Anne Bulford becomes the BBC’s Deputy Director General. She continues to head up finance, operations, HR, legal, and design and engineering, and will also take on responsibilities related to the BBC’s marketing and audiences teams and she will create a new centralised commercial and rights group.
Charlotte Moore will become Director of Content, and has also been handed oversight of BBC Sport on top of her existing responsibility for all the BBC’s TV channels and iPlayer.
James Purnell, who has been director of strategy and digital since February 2013 will become Director of Strategy and Education. He will lead the BBC’s work on strategy and on the delivery of the BBC’s new Ideas Service, which aims to partner the BBC with academic, arts and science institutions to offer an online resource. The corporation said the appointment was part of a renewed drive to put education at the heart of what the BBC does. BBC Children and BBC Learning will now report to him.
The BBC is also to appoint a new director of Nations and Regions. The Directors in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the regional hubs in the North, Midlands and South West will report to this role. The BBC also confirmed that the executive position representing BBC North will close. The director of BBC Children’s – Alice Webb – will lead the region on a day to day basis.
Helen Boaden will continue to lead the BBC’s Radio output and will take responsibility for 5Live as it moves into BBC Radio.
James Harding will continue as Director of News and Current Affairs.
Tim Davie’s role as Director of Worldwide and Mark Linsey’s role as Director of Studios also remain unchanged.
As a result of these changes, the Executive Team will reduce from 16 members to 11. The individual directors for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – Ken MacQuarrie, Rhodri Talfan Davies and Peter Johnston – will no longer be part of the executive team. Neither will Fran Unsworth, director of the BBC World Service, David Jordan, director of editorial policy and standards, and marketing chief Philip Almond.
The BBC says it has already saved over 40 per cent on its senior manager pay bill and reduced its overall pay bill by £150 million a year.
Each executive will now be charged with look at the immediate layers below to identify further headcount and post savings.
Director General, Tony Hall, said: “I am proud of what we have achieved over the last few years. Together we stabilised the BBC after a difficult period in its history. We went on to create a compelling case for a new decade of the BBC and secured an eleven-year charter as a result.
“Now, as we move towards this new Charter period, I want us to turn our energy to focus on the future of public service broadcasting and what it means for our audiences.”
He added: “On a practical level, these changes are also about creating a simpler BBC with fewer layers and clear lines of accountability. Much has already been achieved, but this process must now be accelerated.
“The BBC also needs to reinvigorate its offer to the public on education – something I am passionate about."
Staff Reporter
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