Simon's off

The BBC is finally going to replace Simon Burke as their specialist financial non-executive director. He's been on the Trust/Board since January 2011.

"The successful candidate will be a chartered accountant (or equivalent) and have recent experience as a chief financial officer of a large quoted company or equivalent organisation. They will also have board level experience in a complex organisation."

Burke was born in Dublin, in 1956, and trained as an accountant straight from school. Once qualified, he headed to London, he thought for six months. He moved through Coopers & Lybrand until headhunted for the newly-floated Virgin empire. He volunteered to run the Megastores, then parted with Branson and joined Hamleys. Other berths have included Majestic Wine, Bathstore and Hobbycraft. These days, he's a non-exec at the Co-op, a Director of The Light Cinemas (Holdings) Limited and Blue Diamond Limited.

A student of Byzantine history and 17th century artworks, he lives twixt Notting Hill and Bayswater. It would be interesting to know how nine years with Auntie has changed his thinking; before he signed up to the Beeb, he opined that Radio 3 was "pretentious and often just ghastly clashing noises, which while they may be very meritorious are not very easy on the ear".