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Jeremy Hunt announces the appointment of a new member and reappointments of six members to the BBC Trust

Elan Closs Stephens has been appointed as a BBC Trust Member for Wales, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced today

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The appointment is for four years commencing on 1 November 2010.

Jeremy Hunt has reappointed six Trust Members: Alison Hastings as Trust member for England and Patricia Hodgson, David Liddiment and Diane Coyle as ordinary members, each for four years; and Rotha Johnston as Trust member for Northern Ireland and Mehmuda Mian as ordinary member, each for two years. These reappointments are also from 1 November 2010.

The BBC Trust is responsible for representing the interests of licence fee payers. It applies the principle of public value in holding to account the Executive Board, which is responsible for the day-to-day management of the BBC. The Trust also ensures that the BBC’s activities are not anti-competitive and are consistent with a vibrant and dynamic broadcasting market.

Welcoming the appointment Jeremy Hunt said:

“I am pleased to welcome Elan Closs Stephens to the BBC Trust. Her extensive experience, not just in television but across the creative industries and arts sectors will be invaluable in today’s rapidly changing media landscape.”

Elan Closs Stephens CBE

Elan Closs Stephens is Professor of Communications and Creative Industries at Aberystwyth University. She has provided strategic leadership to cultural bodies as Chair S4C (1998-2006), Governor of the BFI (2001-2007) and as Chair of the Report on the Arts in Wales (Stephens Report 2006) for the Welsh Assembly Government. She is also a Trustee of Arts & Business UK. Her past roles include being a Trustee of the British Council where she still chairs the Wales Advisory Committee. She also sits on the Board of the Imax Waterloo on behalf of the BFI.

Elan interfaces with a range of Welsh issues as a Non Executive Director of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Strategic Delivery and Performance Board. She also chairs the Board’s Corporate Governance Committee.  She currently chairs the Recovery Board for the Isle of Anglesey County Council.

Elan was born in the Nantlle Valley, Gwynedd, and educated at Somerville College, Oxford.  She has two grown up children. In 2001, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting and the Welsh language.

Elan Closs Stephens CBE

Y mae Elan Closs Stephens yn Athro Cyfathrebu a Diwydiannau Creadigol ym Mhrifysgol Aberystwyth.  Y mae wedi rhoi cyfeiriad strategol i nifer o gyrff diwylliannol yn cynnwys Cadeirio S4C (1998-2006), Llywodraethwr y Sefydliad Ffilm Prydeinig bfi (2001-2007) a Chadeirio yr Adroddiad ar y Celfyddydau yng Nghymru (Adroddiad Stephens 2006) i Lywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru.  Y mae hefyd yn Ymddiriedolwr Arts & Business . Yn y gorffennol, bu’n Ymddiriedolwr y Cyngor Prydeinig ac mae’n dal yn cadeirio y Pwyllgor Ymgynghorol yng Nghymru. Mae’n gweithredu fel Cyfarwyddwr Anweithredol yr Imax Waterloo ar ran y BFI.

Y mae Elan yn gyfarwydd ag ystod helaeth o faterion Cymreig trwy ei haelodaeth fel Cyfarwyddwr Anweithredol ar Brif Fwrdd Gwasanaeth Sifil Llywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru lle mae hi hefyd yn cadeirio y Pwyllgor ar Reoleiddio Corfforaethol.  Hi yw Cadeirydd y Bwrdd Adfer ar gyfer Cyngor Sir Ynys Mon.

Ganed Elan yn Nyffryn Nantlle, Gwynedd a’i haddysgu yng Ngholeg Somerville, Rhydychen. Y mae ganddi ddau o blant sydd  bellach yn dilyn eu gyrfaoedd ei hunain.  Yn 2001, fe’i anrhydeddwyd gyda CBE yn Rhestr Anrhydeddau’r Frenhines am ei gwaith tros ddarlledu a’r iaith Gymraeg.

Alison Hastings

Alison edited a large multi-edition metropolitan evening newspaper which, under her, won awards for campaigning and investigative journalism. She now works as a media consultant for organisations like the Press Complaints Commission and Camelot. Alison’s career as a regional journalist and her life in Liverpool give her a valuable perspective on the interests of licence fee payers outside London and the South East, making her the ideal person to hold the role of National Trustee for England. She is also Vice President of the British Board of Film Classification. Her understanding of the pressures faced by the commercial media gives the BBC valuable insights into the wider industry that will help shape its role in supporting a vibrant creative sector in the UK.

Dame Patricia Hodgson DBE

Dame Patricia Hodgson, DBE, is Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge. Her early career was as a producer and journalist. She was Director of Policy and Planning at the BBC from 1993-2000 and Chief Executive of the Independent Television Commission from 2000-2004. She is a non-executive director of the Competition Commission and a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England. She recently chaired the Higher Education Regulation Review Group. She was a member of the Wellcome Trust from 2004-2008 and of the Committee for Standards in Public Life for the same period. She has also served as non executive director of GCap Media plc and as a Member of the Statistics Commission.

Rotha Johnston CBE

Rotha Johnston is an entrepreneur in commerce and property. She is a non-executive Director of Allied Irish Bank (UK) plc and a member of its Audit Committee. Rotha is a member of the Northern Ireland Department of Justice Board and a Pro Chancellor at Queen’s University Belfast. Rotha was Vice Chair of InvestNI until last year and has held appointments in the Labour Relations Agency and the Northern Ireland Economic Council.  Rotha was previously a shareholder and Director of Variety Foods (1995-2005) and before that, Business Development Director at Local Enterprise Development Unit.

David Liddiment

David Liddiment is Creative Director of the independent production company All3Media. He is an Associate of the Old Vic Theatre Company and Chair of the Hepworth Wakefield. He was previously Director of Programmes at ITV, where he commissioned Pop Idol, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. His extensive broadcasting career has included a number of roles ranging from Director of Programmes at Granada TV, Head of Entertainment Group for the BBC Television and Deputy Managing Director and Director of Programmes at LWT. He co-devised This Morning and was executive Producer of Coronation Street from 1987 to 1992. In 2003 he was awarded the Royal Television Society’s Gold Medal. He set up the Old Vic Theatre Company with Artistic Director Kevin Spacey in 2003 and was producer there until he left to take up his role on the BBC Trust in 2007.

Mehmuda Mian

Mehmuda is a non executive director at the Independent Safeguarding Authority and a former Commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, London and South East Region. Prior to that she was a member of the Police Complaints Authority from 1998. Mehmuda was formerly a solicitor working in private practice in Birmingham. She is currently a non-executive director of the NHS Litigation Authority and was a non-executive director of Northern Birmingham Mental Health Trust

Dr Diane Coyle OBE 

Diane Coyle is an economic consultant specialising in new technologies and globalisation. She is a member of the Migration Advisory Committee and was previously a member of the Competition Commission (2001-2009). She is a frequent commentator on radio and television and has written many books and articles on economics including the forthcoming ‘The Economics of Enough’. She was the Economics Editor of The Independent newspaper (UK) from 1993 to 2001, and has a PhD from Harvard.

The post of Vice Chairman was also advertised alongside that of the BBC Trust Member for Wales. However, following Sir Michael Lyons’ decision not to seek reappointment as Chairman of the BBC Trust, the final decision on the appointment of Vice Chairman will not be made until the new Chairman has been identified. 

Notes to Editors

  1. The BBC Trust is led by the Chairman and has 11 other members including the Vice-Chairman. All members are responsible for representing the public interest as a whole. The Trust includes four members formally designated as members for each of the constituent nations of the United Kingdom.

  2. The appointment and reappointments have been made in accordance with the OCPA Code of Practice. All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity (if any declared) to be made public. Elan Closs Stephens, Alison Hastings, Patricia Hodgson, David Liddiment, Diane Coyle, Rotha Johnston and Mehmuda Mian have not carried out any significant political activity within the past five years.

  3. The posts at the BBC Trust are remunerated at a level of £35,935 per annum for ordinary members for a two day per week time commitment and £41,070 for country members for a two and a half day per week time commitment. Trust members recently agreed to take a voluntary reduction of 8.3 per cent from their fees. The reduced rates for these positions are therefore currently £37,660 for the National Trustees and £32,952 for other Trustees.

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Published 14 October 2010