Dave and Dom

One suspects David Cameron is more likely to decide who'll be the next Chairman of the BBC Trust than Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, despite the process of "applications leading to interviews" in January.  

The Guardian reports that Dom Loehnis, consultant with headhunters Egon Zehnder International, is helping with the process.  In May this year, The Times described Loehnis simply as "Cameron’s best friend". Dom was on holiday with the Cameron family when Samantha first appeared on the horizon, as a friend of Dave's sister, Clare. 

Dave and Dom were both at Eton, though Loehnis was below the future PM.   Cameron went to Brasenose to study PPE after a gap year; Loehnis caught up, reading English at University College, Oxford.  Loehnis has a few good connections of his own; Dad Anthony started at the FCO, travelled through Schroder Wagg and other merchant banks, before becoming Executive Director of the Bank of England; he's now chairman of Alpha Bank.

Dave and Dom re-engaged after university in the late 80s, when Loehnis was working as Arts & Media Correspondent at the Sunday Telegraph, and Cameron was at Central Office.  It's believed Cameron helped Loehnis get his next job, as special adviser to Peter Brooke at the Heritage Department. (Somewhere later along the line Dom says he also advised Chris Smith)   From there Dom had spells at Pearson, and Booz Allen in New York, before joining AMFMi to set up websites for the US radio chain.

He re-emerged in the UK in 2000, married Tiffany Richards, a literary agent, and co-founded Monkey Kingdom TV with Will MacDonald as creative director (best known then as Chris Evans' sidekick on TFI Friday). Another Etonian, Harry Eastwood was also on board (as featured in the infamous Bullingdon Club photo from 1987 with the future PM).  After six years,  Dom moved on, spending nine months as "Investment Director" for private equity firm LongAcre Capital (who'd put up the money for Monkey);  LongAcre got taken over by the Jefferies Group, so Dom moved on to Egon Zehnder on their "media and entertainment" roster. .

Dom is 41, likes good food and Arsenal. The Independent says he shares with Cameron an interest in cricket, bridge, socialising, piss-taking and cooking.  


In May last year, the Egon Zehnder consultancy provided the BBC with a "Board Effectiveness Review", present by one Dom Loehnis. The minutes say "It was noted that the Board was working well according to the most important criteria, but that there were inevitably some areas for improvement".  Let's hope he can help provide the BBC Trust with improved leadership.