The BBC has promoted the World Service’s deputy MD Caroline Thomson
to be its new director of public policy.
Reporting to director-general Greg Dyke, Thomson will oversee the BBC’s
editorial and regulatory policies, while taking charge of its legal
affairs and government relations functions.
Thomson’s appointment fills the vacancy created by the announcement that
incumbent Patricia Hodgson is to become chief executive of the
Independent Television Commission later this year.
Thomson has spent more than 20 years in broadcasting. She worked for the
BBC for eight years before joining the SDP as a political assistant to
leader Roy Jenkins in the 1983 general election campaign. After that she
worked for Channel 4 and was made head of corporate affairs in 1990.
She returned to the BBC in 1995 as strategic and corporate affairs
director for the World Service and was appointed deputy MD four years
ago.
Her PR experience at the World Service included responsibility for
audience research, marketing and public affairs. She led negotiations
with the Treasury over this week’s Comprehensive Spending Review, which
gives the World Service a real-terms increase of over four per cent
annually over three years.
