Director-General of the BBC


The Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and editor-in-chief of the BBC.
The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC and then the BBC Trust. Since 2017 the Director-General is appointed by the BBC Board.
To date nineteen individuals, all of whom have been men, have been appointed Director-General, plus an additional two who were appointed in an acting capacity only. The current Director-General is Tony Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead, who was appointed from the chief executiveship of the Royal Opera House, which position he had held from April 2001. He is the first peer to hold the position. In June 2020 it was announced that Tim Davie would be taking over the position from Tony Hall from September 2020.

List of incumbents

Director GeneralTenureTime in post
Sir John Reith1927–193811 years
Sir Frederick Ogilvie1938–19424 years
Sir Cecil Graves and Robert W. Foot1942–19431 year
Robert W. Foot1943–19441 year
Sir William Haley1944–19528 years
Sir Ian Jacob1952–19597 years
Sir Hugh Greene1960–19699 years
Sir Charles Curran1969–19778 years
Sir Ian Trethowan1977–19825 years
Alasdair Milne1982–19875 years
Sir Michael Checkland1987–19925 years
Sir John Birt1992–20008 years
Greg Dyke2000–20044 years
Mark Byford*January–June 20045 months
Mark Thompson2004–20128 years
George EntwistleSeptember–November 201254 days
Tim Davie*2012–2013141 days
Tony Hall, Baron Hall of BirkenheadApril 2013 – September 2020Incumbent: 7 years to date
Tim DavieSeptember 2020 –N/A

An asterisk indicates that the incumbent was temporarily appointed as Acting Director General.