Mark Byford
Mark Byford | |
---|---|
Director-General of the BBC | |
Acting January 2004 – June 2004 | |
Preceded by | Greg Dyke |
Succeeded by | Mark Thompson |
Deputy Director-General of the BBC | |
In office 1 January 2004 – 31 March 2011 | |
Succeeded by | Anne Bulford |
Personal details | |
Born | Castleford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | 13 June 1958
Spouse | Hilary Bleiker |
Children | 5 |
Parent |
|
Alma mater | University of Leeds |
Mark Julian Byford (born 13 June 1958) was Deputy Director-General of the BBC and head of BBC journalism from 2004 to 2011. He chaired the BBC Journalism Board and was a member of the BBC Executive Board for thirteen years.
His responsibilities also included BBC Sport, the nations and regions (BBC Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and English regions) and editorial policy. He led the BBC-wide coverage of the general elections in 2005 and 2010; the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008; and the BBC coverage of the Queen Mother's Funeral in 2002 and the Royal Wedding in 2011.
Byford established and chaired the BBC's Editorial Standards Board, which was responsible for promoting the BBC's standards in ethics and programme-making across the corporation. He also established and chaired the Complaints Management Board, which oversaw the handling of complaints across the BBC. In addition, he was the chair of the BBC Academy Board co-ordinating all its training and development. He was in overall charge of the BBC's planning for the
On 12 October 2010 it was announced that Byford had accepted voluntary redundancy. He stood down from the Executive Board in March 2011 and left the corporation in June 2011.[1]
After leaving the BBC, Byford became a writer as well as focusing on voluntary and charitable work. His first book, A Name on a Wall, about an American soldier killed in the
He is currently a
Early life
Byford was born in
He returned to West Yorkshire in 1976, studying law at the University of Leeds, where he was president of Devonshire Hall. Immediately on graduating he joined the BBC in 1979, aged 20, as a "temporary holiday relief assistant" working as a researcher over the summer holiday in his local (Look North) television newsroom in Leeds. After three months' vacation work, he joined the BBC full-time.
Career with the BBC
In 1981, aged just 22, he produced the
The following year, in 1982, he produced the award-winning edition again – this time with
He joined the BBC's board of management in 1996 as Director, Regional Broadcasting, responsible for the BBC's activities in the UK outside London. In 1997–98, he drew up the BBC's response to devolution and helped to devise and implement the policy to increase the level of network programming production outside London. In 1998 he became director of the BBC World Service and then head of the BBC's multi-media global news division in 2002.
In January 2004 he became Deputy Director-General of the BBC but within three weeks of his appointment,
When Mark Thompson was appointed Director-General of the BBC in June 2004, Byford's role was enlarged to take responsibility for all the BBC's journalism at UK, international and local levels – the first time such a post had been established. In July 2006 he also became responsible for BBC Sport.
In June 2008 the BBC's governing body, the BBC Trust, in a direct criticism of BBC News, instructed Byford and his editors to "improve the range, clarity and precision of its network coverage of the different UK nations and regions". The Trust said the BBC was "falling short of its own high standards" and, in part, failing to meet its core purpose of helping inform democracy.[3] Three years later, Professor Anthony King, the author of the original report for the Trust, said there "had been enormous change in how the BBC reported the devolved nations. They make many fewer mistakes than they used to."
As chair of the BBC's Editorial Standards Board, Byford led the executive response to the faked competitions scandals that engulfed the BBC in 2007, including designing the special training programme Safeguarding Trust which more than 17,000 members of staff had to attend. In November 2008, he led the investigation into the
He is a fellow of The
In July 2010, it was revealed that Byford had flown on business to the World Cup in South Africa, business class at a cost of £4,878.[5] This came against a background of further cuts in BBC News, for which Byford was responsible. On 12 October 2010 it was announced Byford was leaving the corporation after thirty-two years and the Deputy Director-General post closed as part of the BBC's cutbacks in senior management costs. Byford left the Executive Board of the BBC at the end of March 2011, and his BBC employment ended in the early summer after he led the Royal Wedding coverage, reportedly with a redundancy/notice package of between £800,000 and £900,000.[1]
On his retirement
The subsequent Pollard Review highlighted that several witnesses had said "they believe the Savile affair and, in particular, the BBC's poor handling of it after the investigation was halted, would not have happened if the role of Deputy Director-General occupied by Mark Byford had still been in existence." Media commentators agreed with that view. Professor Stewart Purvis said: "He watched the DG's back and he watched the BBC's back. Margaret Thatcher once declared: "Every Prime Minister needs a Willie (Whitelaw). Now the chorus is growing that every DG needs a Mark B." Peter Preston described him as: "a news aware Deputy, a safety net, a mopper up of perilous trifles."
After leaving the BBC, Byford pursued a fresh path as a writer of non-fiction. His first book, A Name On A Wall: Two Men, Two Wars, Two Destinies was published by Mainstream in 2013. It tells the contrasting stories of an American soldier, Larry Byford, killed in the
His second book, The Annunciation: A Pilgrim's Quest, was published by
Personal life
He is married to Hilary Bleiker, whom he met whilst at Leeds University where she studied English, and they have five adult children, two sons and three daughters. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree by the University of Leeds in 2008. He and his family live in Winchester. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Winchester, and in 2010 an honorary doctorate by the University of Lincoln, the city where he spent his teenage years.
He has been a
References
- ^ a b Neil Midgley "BBC's Mark Byford made redundant", The Daily Telegraph, 11 October 2010
- ^ "Alumni & Alumnae". Lincoln Christ's Hospital School. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
- ^ "Entertainment | BBC told to improve UK coverage". BBC News. 11 June 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
- ^ "Fellows | the Radio Academy". Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
- ^ Mark Sweney. "BBC expenses: Mark Byford claims £5,000 for World Cup final flights | Media". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
- ^ [1][dead link]
External links
- Becomes Acting Director-General
- Video message celebrating seventy years of the World Service
- University of Leeds Alumni
- Honorary Fellows | New College