Mark Byford
British media executive / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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.
Mark Byford | |
---|---|
Director-General of the BBC | |
Acting January 2004 ā June 2004 | |
Preceded by | Greg Dyke |
Succeeded by | Mark Thompson |
Deputy Director-General of the BBC | |
In office 1 January 2004 ā 31 March 2011 | |
Succeeded by | Anne Bulford |
Personal details | |
Born | (1958-06-13) 13 June 1958 (age 65) Castleford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
Spouse | Hilary Bleiker |
Children | 5 |
Parent |
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Alma mater | University of Leeds |
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 London 2012 Olympic Games as chair of the London 2012 Steering Group.
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 Vietnam War, was published by Mainstream Publishing in November 2013. His second book, The Annunciation: A Pilgrim's Quest, a personal search to understand the meaning of Luke's Gospel story, was published in April 2018.
He is currently a lay canon and member of the chapter at Winchester Cathedral. He is also a governor at the University of Winchester; a trustee of the Winchester Hospice fundraising charity; and a trustee of Play to the Crowd, the charity that runs Winchester Theatre Royal and the Hat Fair. He was made a vice president of the RNLI in 2019 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the charity whilst a trustee from 2012 to 2019, where he was chair of the audit and risk committee, and previously chair of the fundraising and communications committee.