Why I became a Governor
At the time of approaching retirement from my role as Group Chief Economist at The Royal Bank of Scotland, I was looking to carry on being active, at something that I could feel committed to and with a clear Scottish connection. The role of BBC Governor - on the UK Board but also National Governor for Scotland - seemed to fit the bill ideally. Partly because the BBC's an institution I've always hugely respected, but also because of its being at a crucial transitional stage, in terms both of the industry as a whole and the governance of the organisation.
The BBC Governorship will most certainly be my main role from now on. But I will also be Director of the David Hume Institute, an Edinburgh-based public policy and economics think-tank, and remain Vice Chair of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. I've been appointed to the Panel of the Competition Commission, and I'll also be doing some consulting for RBS and a few other bits & pieces - just generally doing more of what I want to and enjoy and less of what I have to.
As far as being a Governor goes, I think it helps that I've worked in both the public and private sectors. I was in the civil service for a long time before my 12 stimulating years at RBS. One common factor is always the drive for both greater efficiency and quality. Assessing value for money is inevitably more difficult in the public sector. In the private sector your objectives are clear and can usually be readily measured and valued - you're working to maximise shareholder value. But in the public sector, including here the BBC, while the objectives may be equally clear, their attainment is far more difficult to quantify let alone value. And this is where Building Public Value and the debate in the context of the Green Paper is very important, because it's all about deciding what you're trying to achieve and how to measure the extent to which you're achieving it.
The BBC's always been very important to me on a personal level, right back to the Coronation, which I watched with all the neighbours gathered around. When living in Botswana in the early '80s, the World Service kept us in touch with what was going on in the Falklands. Even earlier, when based at the British Embassy in Bangkok in the early 1970s, there was a coup, and the World Service told us what was happening around us far better than any local outlet. It's still just as important to me today. I never willingly miss the Today programme, I'm a great fan of BBC sport and detective programmes, and I listen increasingly to Radio Scotland, which has a tremendous influence on Scottish life - far more so than any station broadcasting from down South.
I also think it's very important that Scotland continues to feed into the national output - both programmes like Monarch of the Glen, for example, which are essentially Scottish and programmes like Restoration which demonstrate our ability to provide excellent output. But the BBC must also focus on programmes made by and for Scotland - like Gutted on the Scottish fishing industry, The Gathering Place - a major series on the new Scottish Parliament building - and coverage of Scottish political affairs. And woe betide anyone who schedules an English football match at the expense of a Scottish one!
Top
