Jody

The BBC Board have selected Jody Ford, turning 51 this month, as a new non-executive director.  He's probably the first to be dressed from the Land's End catalogue.

He's currently CEO of Trainline, where he earned £5.6m last year. Other brand names in his CV - Photobox, Moonpig and EBay. 

Ford says his interest in railways began when his parents split up but had joint custody, so he spent many weekends travelling between Peterbough and King's Cross, before heading to Herne Hill. He went to Gresham's, then Exeter University, where he spent time as DJ on the student raio, Xpression FM “I was an indie kid, played Blur, Oasis, Radiohead and dance music.” Formula 1 commentator Ted Kravitz was a fellow presenter. 

Jody parlayed a degree in politics and economics into a job with Price Waterhouse, then Orange, then an MBA at Insead, an internship with EBay, Australia and a spell at McKinsey, before a return to EBay and four years in San Jose.

The Trainline service still divides opinions. As one commentsator put it, "The Trainline is ever so slightly worse for those who know alot about trains, but is very accessible to a mass market who don't really care about trains."  Mr Ford has brought in David Hasselhof as an ambassador for the service in the USA.