There is nothing like a..

Marjorie Scardino likes "firsts", and has been tipped to end up at the BBC ever since she decided to step down as CEO of Pearson - the first female CEO of a Footsie company, appointed in 1997.

She describes herself as "a recovering Texan", though she was actually born in Flagstaff, Arizona, then brought up in Texarkana, where she took part in school rodeos, but also buried herself in books. A law degree at Baylor beckoned, but was disrupted by campus Cambodia protests, and she took a job with AP in Charleston. It was there Majorie Morris met husband-to-be Albert Scardino; she was a desk editor by then, and refused to send one of his stories for national distribution; he went round her back. But romance had started - they eventually married in a San Francisco park; Marjorie was completing her law studies in the city.

Marjorie flirted with broadcasting, trying a stint as a radio newsreader in Boston; and, with hubby, produced a film about Savannah, Georgia, where he grew up. She joined a law practice, and, with some urging from partners, the Scardinos set up the Georgia Gazette. Albert picked up a Pulitzer prize for some of his campaigning stories, and circulation, with Marjorie taking the strategic role of publisher, rose to a stonking 4,000. However, local adminstrations took against the pair, and moved their ads to a rival paper - and the Georgia Gazette folded in 1985.

The couple moved to New York - Albert to the Times, and Marjorie to the New York offices of The Economist - her first foothold in the Pearson Group.

Is she now "British" enough to mind Auntie ?  She's a British citizen, with a country house on the banks of the Orwell in Suffolk (where locals have been offended by the arrival of a pair of wind turbines). Husband had a flirtation with football, spending a couple of years as owner of Notts County. Youngest son Hal went to Winchester, and starred in Frank Oz's film version of Lynne Reid Banks' story The Indian In The Cupboard (Can we say that now ? Ed). Marjorie has been a Trustee of the V&A (where she overlapped with ex BBC hacks Samir Shah and Mark Damazer).

Could she form a partnership with Lord Hall ?  They've been together on "Global Leadership" events when Tony was at the Royal Opera House. It's a pairing that would at least work better than one mischievously fed to The Guardian; that of Dame Jenny Abramsky, ex BBC Director of Audio & Music, now at the National Lottery Heritage Fund...