The former head of the Financial Times Group, Rona Fairhead, is slated to become the first woman to lead the BBC after it was announced she was the preferred government candidate to take on the role of chair of the BBC Trust.
Fairhead has been announced as the frontrunner as chair of the broadcaster’s governing body and will appear before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee later this month for ‘pre-appointment scrutiny’.
“The BBC is a great British institution packed with talented people, and I am honoured to have the opportunity to be the chairman of the BBC Trust,” she said.
She added that she was under no illusion about the enormity of the job, but given her career history she will bring some high-level business experience to the role.
Fairhead’s impressive career began with a law degree from Cambridge University. She is a long-standing non-executive director of banking giant HSBC and sits on the boards of a number of companies, including PepsiCo.
She has an MBA from Harvard and was appointed a British business ambassador and a non-executive member of the Cabinet Office Board, which she stood down from after being selected as the preferred candidate.
Last year she left her role at the Financial Times after seven years, reportedly because she was passed over for the role of CEO of its parent company, Pearson. She has also been slated as the front runner to take on the role of chairman of Barclays.
Given Fairhead’s career credentials, plus a list of hobbies that includes obtaining a pilot’s license, why would the Telegraph choose to run with this headline and story opening?
This is 2014 pic.twitter.com/e0Qyess7Ut via @wvhtlucy
— EverydaySexism (@EverydaySexism) August 31, 2014