Tom's time

Finally, Tom Fussell has been appointed Chief Executive at BBC Studios. Officially, he's been interim CEO since September 1st 2020; in reality, he's been pretty much in charge since Tim Davie was appointed to the role of DG in June 2020. 

Tim launched a recruitment process to find his successor at Studios, employing headhunters Egon Zehnder, with a clear brief on gender balance, but, as with many other 'onboarding' processes in the BBC, speed was not an ingredient, and, according to Deadline, when new BBC chairman Richard Sharp formally arrived in February this year, he asked that more headhunting be done.   

So Tom, who told colleagues he probably wouldn't be a candidate, gets the permanent gig, and presumably approval from the top.  

Tom Fussell, 50, (Westminster School and B.Sc Economics, Bristol) started out with KPMG, spent nearly 10 years in various BBC finance roles, before outside experience with Random House, Harper Collins, and Shine. Then came the return to Auntie as CFO of Studios in 2016. 

Tom speaks Farsi.  He's on the board of the Vaseppi Trust, which channels UK income from Borgo Vaseppi olive oil, to various UK and Italian causes.  His wife is mezzo-soprano Sally Bruce-Payne.