George Entwistle named the fifteenth BBC director general
THE BBC yesterday appointed an insider as its new director general who will take the helm when Mark Thompson retires from the job later this year.
George Entwistle, 49, pipped other front-runners Caroline Thomson, BBC chief operating officer, and Ed Richards, boss of Ofcom, to the post.
Head since last year of BBC Vision, where he oversees all the major channels, Entwistle joined the broadcaster in 1989 as a journalism trainee.
Raised in Yorkshire and educated at Durham University, the former Newsnight editor can take credit for introducing BBC2’s The Culture Show but was also responsible for the broadcaster’s much-criticised coverage of the Diamond Jubilee last month.
Entwistle will earn a yearly salary of £450,000 – just two thirds of Thompson’s £671,000 pay.