Women dominate shortlist to succeed Lord Patten at BBC

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/23/lord-patten-successor-shortlist-bbc-trust

Version 0 of 1.

Government officials are weighing up a shortlist of replacements for Lord Patten as chairman of the BBC Trust, including Sir Hayden Phillips, the former civil servant who helped reform the honours system.

Senior broadcasting figures have been asked for their opinions on a group of potential candidates, with Dame Marjorie Scardino, the former chief executive of the company behind the Financial Times, also on the list. Colette Bowe, the former chair of the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, and Dame Fiona Reynolds, who ran the National Trust, have also been mentioned, reflecting what is thought to be David Cameron's preference for a woman to head the national broadcaster.

The £110,000-a-year, four-days-a-week job has not yet been advertised and those listed have not been approached, but the Department for Culture (DCMS) wants to establish who it should take seriously or perhaps invite to apply.

The list is not thought to be exhaustive at this early stage – and at least one fancied contender, early frontrunner Sir Howard Stringer, the former boss of Sony, is not thought to have been mentioned by officials.

Savid Javid, the new culture secretary, is understood to be close to appointing headhunters to help with the process to find a replacement for Patten, who unexpectedly stepped down as chair earlier this month due to ill health.

Bowe, Scardino and Phillips are understood to be waiting to see what the scope of the job is when the position is advertised.

One of the issues making recruitment difficult is the future of the BBC Trust, which is widely expected to be overhauled or scrapped in the charter renewal process after the general election.

Previous chairmen have been appointed because of their political links – Gavyn Davies was a Labour donor, while Patten is a Conservative peer.

But one suggestion being mooted in official circles this time around is to have the BBC Trust chaired by an apolitical regulatory expert, while a more traditional public figure is appointed chairman of the BBC's executive board.

At the moment the chairman of the executive board is director general Tony Hall, but there is a provision in the charter for the board to be run by someone other than the director general.

One source saidthat while the proposal may be being discussed at the moment, it makes the it would make most sense for it the suggestion to be considered after charter renewal is completed in 2017.

"Tony Hall will have done three-and-a-half years and will probably be thinking of transitioning out," he said. "Given his stature it is hard to imagine Tony suddenly being asked to have a chairman now. This sounds like the post-2016 solution being discussed."

The deputy Labour leader, Harriet Harman, recently wrote to Javid asking the government to appoint on merit rather than politics. That may help explain why someone with a civil service background such as Phillips is being mooted.

A DCMS spokesman said: "An announcement will be made in due course about the appointment process for a successor. The process will be open, transparent and conducted in accordance with the commissioner for public appointment's code of practice."