Introducing our Board
The Board is constituted under the terms of the BBC’s Royal Charter and Agreement. It is responsible for ensuring the BBC fulfils its mission and public purposes, as set out in the Charter and Agreement.
The Charter sets out the Board’s responsibilities, its membership and the requirement for a number of Committees to support its work. The Board is responsible for the proper, effective and independent exercise of all the functions of the BBC. It sets the strategic direction for the corporation and approves the creative remit and the budgets for the BBC’s services.
The Board is chaired by Samir Shah and consists of up to ten non-executive directors – including the Chairman – and up to four executive directors, including the Director-General. The Chairman and the four Nations’ non-executive directors are appointed by HM The King, on the recommendation of Ministers across the UK. The remainder are appointed by the BBC Board through the Board’s Nominations and Governance Committee. The non-executive members are considered to be independent for the purposes of good corporate governance.
All directors have access to the advice of the Company Secretary, Chris Sandford, who is responsible for advising the Board on all governance matters.
Full biographies of all Board members, including information on their other roles, can be found on the BBC’s website.
The Board delegates some of its responsibilities to a number of sub-committees. It is required to have a Remuneration and People Committee, a Nominations and Governance Committee and an Audit and Risk Committee. The work of these committees is complemented by the work of other committees, established by the Board – these include the Editorial Standards Committee (formerly known as the Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee, with changes made to the scope and remit of the Committee following a review led by Senior Independent Director Caroline Thomson and published in December 2025) and a committee for each of the four Nations of the UK. The Commercial Board oversees the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries on behalf of the Board. See Our governance structure for an overview.
This section includes reports from those committees which are chaired by and predominantly made up of non-executive directors, as required by the Charter. This page shows the membership of the Board as at 29 June 2026, when this report was signed.
During the year there was considerable change in the membership of the Board. Nicholas Serota’s term as a Board member came to an end on 2 April 2025. He was replaced by Caroline Thomson, who joined the Board as Senior Independent Director from 3 April 2025.
On 9 November 2025 the Director-General, Tim Davie, and Deborah Turness, CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, both announced their resignations. Deborah stepped down from the Board immediately; Tim Davie left the Board on his departure from the BBC on 2 April 2026.
On 20 November 2025, it was agreed that Damon Buffini would extend his term on the Board for six months, ending on 30 June 2026. On 19 February 2026 it was announced that Damon would step down from the Board at the end of his term. Shumeet Banerji announced his resignation from the Board on 21 November 2025, ahead of the conclusion of his term on 31 December 2025. He was replaced by Jody Ford, who joined the Board on 12 January 2026.
Muriel Gray was reappointed to the Board for a second term of four years, commencing on 3 January 2026. On 5 January 2026 Bérangère Michel joined the BBC as Group Chief Financial Officer and took up a seat as an executive member of the Board.
Following Tim Davie’s resignation it was agreed that Rhodri Talfan Davies would act as Interim Director-General from 3 April 2026 until the formal start of a new Director-General in the role. He joined the Board as an executive director from 1 February 2026. On 25 March 2026 the appointment of Matt Brittin as the new Director-General was announced, with Matt starting as Director-General on 18 May 2026.
On 2 March 2026 it was announced that Leigh Tavaziva would leave the BBC on 1 September 2026, and would step down from the Board at that point, with the Group Chief Operating Officer role to be closed.
On 9 June 2026 it was announced that Rhodri Talfan Davies had been appointed as Deputy Director-General and would join the Board from that date.
Detail on members’ attendance at Board and sub-committee meetings is set out in the Nominations and Governance Committee report.
