Mark Byford

Mark Byford (born 13 June 1958) was Deputy Director General of the British Broadcasting Corporation and head of BBC Journalism from 2004-2011. He chaired the BBC Journalism Board and had overall responsibility for the world’s largest and most trusted news organisation, and all its radio, television and interactive journalism content across the UK and around the globe.

His responsibilities included BBC Sport, the Nations (BBC Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Editorial Policy.He led the BBC wide coverage of the General Elections in 2005 and 2010; the Beijing Olympic Games coverage in 2008;and the BBC coverage of the Queen Mother's Funeral in 2002 and the Royal Wedding in 2011.

Byford chaired the BBC's Editorial Standards Board, which is responsible for promoting the BBC's standards in ethics and programme-making across the Corporation. He also chaired the Complaints Management Board, which oversees the handling of complaints across the BBC. In addition, he was the chair of the BBC Academy Board coordinating 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 redundancy and would stand down from the Executive Board in March 2011 and leave the Corporation in June 2011.^[1]

Early life

Byford was born in Castleford, West Yorkshire. He spent his early years living around the West Riding, Yorkshire, where his father, Sir Lawrence Byford, served as a policeman. Sir Lawrence went on to become Chief Constable of Lincolnshire, and later, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary. Mark was educated at Lincoln School which later became Lincoln Christ's Hospital Comprehensive School.

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 Royal Television Society’s Regional News programme of the Year – a Look North special on unemployment in the north of England.

The following year, in 1982, he produced the award-winning edition again – this time with South Today in Southampton. In 1987 he became Head of News at BBC Bristol before becoming Home Editor BBC News and Current Affairs responsible for all television network newsgathering coverage across the UK. There he led the BBC's coverage of the Clapham rail crash, the Kegworth M1 air crash, the Lockerbie bombing, Hillsborough and the Marchioness riverboat disaster. In 1990 he returned to Leeds as Head of Centre. In 1991 he became Controller Regional Broadcasting aged 33.

He joined the BBC’s Board of Management in 1996 as Director, Regional Broadcasting responsible for all the BBC's activities across the UK, outside of 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 Greg Dyke resigned as Director General, following the publication of the Hutton Report. Byford was appointed by the Board of Governors as Acting Director-General, a role that he undertook for five months. During this period, Byford had a lead role in producing "Building Public Value", the BBC's Charter renewal manifesto.

When Mark Thompson was appointed Director-General 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 leading the BBC's Journalism at all levels across radio,television and online, had been established. In July 2006, he also become responsible for BBC Sport.

During his tenure, the BBC's journalism service built audiences to record levels with a weekly reach of more than 80% of the UK population and more than 230 million people worldwide, and won numerous Emmy, BAFTA, Royal Television Society, Sony Radio and Webby internet awards. However, 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.^[2]

As Chair of the BBC's Editorial Standards Board, Byford led the Executive's response to the faked competitions scandals that engulfed the Corporation 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 Brand/Ross affair and produced the special report that was published subsequently by the BBC Trust. He is a Fellow of The Radio Academy.^[3]

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.^[4] This came against a background of further cuts in BBC News, for which Byford is responsible. On 12 October 2010 it was announced Byford was being made redundant 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]

Personal life

He is married to Hilary Bleiker, whom he met whilst at Leeds University where she studied English, and they have five 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. In 2010, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Lincoln, the city where he spent his teenage years.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Neil Midgley "BBC's Mark Byford made redundant", Daily Telegraph, 11 October 2010
2. ^ BBC NEWS|Entertainment|BBC told to improve UK coverage
3. ^ The Radio Academy "Fellows"
4. ^ The Guardian coverage of Byford

External links

BBC portal

• BBC Biography
• Becomes Acting Director General
• Video message celebrating seventy years of the World Service
• University of Leeds Alumni

Media offices
Preceded by Greg Dyke 2000–Jan 2004	Director-General of the BBC (acting) January 2004–June 2004	Succeeded by Mark Thompson June 2004—

Persondata
Name	Byford, Mark
Alternative names
Short description	English journalist and editor
Date of birth	13 June 1958
Place of birth	Castleford, West Yorkshire, England, UK
Date of death
Place of death