Chairman Nick ?

We offered a little profile of Nicholas Prettejohn when he joined the BBC Trust. Now he's favourite to run the whole shebang, so we'd better dig a little deeper.

Nicholas Edward Tucker Prettejohn (Taunton School and Balliol) is big on classical music, particularly opera. He's proud to live in the Belgravia street that was Mozart's address in London. His favourite opera, if pushed, is Verdi's Don Carlos (Franco-Spanish political intrigue, a little light burning of heretics, etc). He's chairman of the Britten-Pears Foundation (working alongside BBC Proms-minder Edward Blakeman), and of the Royal Northern College of Music. He was part of the Peter Grimes Production Syndicate that brought the Britten opera revival to the ENO earlier this year.

On a smaller scale, he's supported English Pocket Opera, working to bring music to primary schools, in various guises over 16 years. And, of course, he was on the board of the Royal Opera House from 2005 to 2013, where he chaired the Audit Committee, monitoring the work of Chief Executive Tony Hall.

He plays golf, last month surrendering his GP's Annual Golf Day trophy at Coombe Hill. He likes horseracing - over jumps - and Channel 4's coverage. He married Claire, a lawyer, in 1997, and they have two daughters.

His first reported contact with George Osborne was as one of a group of City-types working, via Mark Hoban, for the new Chancellor in 2010 on fixing regulation.

His Desert Island Discs book choice - if and when he gets there - A Dance to the Music of Time, Antony Powell's twelve-volume cycle of novels. Or The Wind In The Willows.