Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson joined the BBC as a production trainee after graduating from Merton College, Oxford. Among various key roles, he was appointed editor of the Nine O'Clock News in 1988, editor of Panorama in 1990 and controller of BBC Two in 1996. By 2000 he was BBC director of television, but left the corporation in 2002 to become chief executive of Channel Four. He returned to the BBC as director general in May 2004, following a unanimous decision by the BBC Board of Governors which declared he had ‘unquestionable public service credentials'.