Hunters

Students of BBC DG recruitment will be aware of the value of headhunters Egon Zehnder. 

They were involved in the recruitment of George Entwistle (internal) as Director of Vision in 2011, and Ralph Rivera (external) as Digital Media Director in 2010. 

The DCMS turned to Egon Zehnder to recruit Lord Patten as BBC chair in 2011; in turn, Lord Patten used their services in 2011/12 to find a successor to Mark Thompson. They generated 69 applications, and a final five of four insiders - George Entwistle, Tim Davie, Caroline Thomson, Helen Boaden - and one external candidate, said to be Ed Richards, of Ofcom.  Fee: £127.500 plus VAT. 

When it all fell apart for George Entwistle, Egon Zehnder offered their services for free, but Lord Patten gave the nod to Lord Hall within 12 days (thus creating the duo "Lardy Lord and Lordy Lord").  Tim Davie, despite not making the final three in the Entwistle appointment, served six months as Interim DG. 

Egon Zehnder were not involved in the 2020 jostle to replace Lord Hall; that contract went to Odgers Berndtson. They produced insiders Tim Davie and Charlotte Moore, and outsiders Will Lewis and Doug Gurr. 

EZ were invited back to find a replacement for Tim Davie, who had transformed BBC Worldwide into BBC Studios; it took them six months, and the process appointed Davie's No2, Tom Fussell, as the CEO of Studios. 

Dom Loehnis, the EZ partner who used to work the BBC account (David Cameron was best man at Dom's wedding) has moved on, and I can't yet identify a partner handling the hunt for Tim Davie's replacement. 

Meanwhile in the bars of W1, unverified rumours swirl that Tim Davie had been rolling the pitch for an early 2026 departure some time before this latest schemozzle....