Helen Boaden
| Helen Boaden | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
1 March 1956 Colchester, Essex |
| Nationality | British |
| Education |
Northgate Grammar School, Suffolk Cedars Grammar School, Bedfordshire |
| Alma mater |
University of Sussex Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania London College of Printing |
| Occupation | Director of BBC Radio |
| Employer | BBC |
| Known for | Director of BBC Radio (2013–) Director of BBC News (2004–2013) Controller of BBC7 (2002–2004) Controller of BBC Radio 4 (2000–2004) |
| Salary | £340,000 (total remuneration £352,900) |
Helen Boaden (born 1956) is a British broadcasting executive who spent more than 30 years working for the BBC until it was announced in late September 2016 that she would be leaving the BBC in March 2017.
In February 2013, Boaden assumed the role of the BBC's Director of Radio, including responsibilities for their national networks for music and speech, following negative publicity about her role in the BBC's initial non-coverage of Jimmy Savile's history of sexually abusing children.
Boaden was born on 1 March 1956 in Colchester in Essex. Her father was an FE lecturer in Geography and then worked for a teaching union. She says that she came "from one of those families where there was quite a lot of shouting and plates whizzing through the air".
Boaden says that she found school "a great relief from home life because it was calm and ordered". She was educated at Rushmere junior school and Northgate Grammar School (now Northgate High School) in the large county town of Ipswich in Suffolk, and at Cedars Grammar School (now Cedars Upper School) in the town of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, followed by the University of Sussex, where she gained a BA Honours in English Literature and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, where she gained an MBA.
Boaden started her career in 1978 as a Care Assistant with disturbed adolescents in the London Borough of Hackney. The following year, she became a journalist with the New York City radio station WBAI. On returning to the UK, she took a course in Radio Journalism at the London College of Printing (now the London College of Communication). After Radio Tees and Radio Aire, she joined the BBC in 1983 as a news producer with Radio Leeds. From there, she joined BBC Radio 4 as a reporter on the File on 4 series, then as its Editor from 1991. Boaden worked from the BBC in Manchester as a presenter for Woman's Hour and later presented other documentaries for Radio 4, and also for the Brass Tacks political programme on BBC Two.
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