Mark Byford
| Mark Byford | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Director-General of the BBC | |
|
In office 1 January 2004 – 31 March 2011 |
|
| Succeeded by | Anne Bulford |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
13 June 1958 Castleford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | University of Leeds |
Mark Julian 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 news organisation and all its radio, television and interactive journalism content across the UK and around the world. He was a member of the BBC Executive Board for thirteen years.
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 is 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 oversees 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. After leaving the BBC, Byford became a writer. His first book, 'A Name on a Wall', about an American soldier killed in the Vietnam war, was published in November 2013. He is understood to be working on a second book about the Annunciation, inspired by a painting in the National Gallery in London.
Byford was born in Castleford, West Yorkshire. He spent his early years living around the West Riding of 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.
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