Appraisal

“I have always loved the BBC. I grew up with it,” Lucy Adams told CIPD magazine in 2010, describing how her father, an actor and writer, and mother, a secretary in the legal department, met while working at the corporation. “To be given an opportunity to be here, for however long, is just an immense honour".

It turned out to be five years. She says she was prompted to apply for the BBC role by headhunters whilst only a year into a job at lawyers Eversheds - and took a pay cut to join.  MPs on the Public Accounts Committee assert that she actually improved her basic pay.

The CV of Lucy Kate Germanda Adams shows a 2.1 in History and English Literature from Brighton, thence to what looks like an holding role as a recruitment consultant for Xpert Recruitment - if I've got the right one, they're now trading as Kelly Payroll Services.

Then a move north, to lecturing at Harrogate College of Art and Technology, followed by a job with the North Yorkshire Training and Enterprise Council, where on the side, she learned how to weld.

From there she became director of  business development for Pannell Kerr Forster, a sort of franchise brand for independent accounting firms - that lasted a year, before "a chance meeting with the Chief Exectuive of Serco, who offered me a job".

Thus, in 1999, thanks to a rigorous recruitment policy, she started in the rail division of the firm that finds cheaper ways of doing things the public services used to do. She was responsible for a diversity drive at Metrolink, who spookily now offer the stuttering tram service to MediaCityUK. Eventually, she became Group HR Director. Included in her tasks was advising on executive remuneration in a company well provided at the top level with bonuses, share options and pension pots.

Eversheds beckoned in 2008. Pay cut or no, she will have earned close to £1.6m from her time with the BBC.