Mark Byford

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Mark Julian Byford (born 13 June 1958) was Deputy Director-General of the

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and head of BBC journalism from 2004 to 2011. He chaired the BBC Journalism Board and was a member of the BBC Executive Board for thirteen years. His responsibilities also included

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, the nations and regions (BBC Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and English regions) and editorial policy. He led the BBC-wide coverage of the general elections in 2005 and 2010; the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008; and the BBC coverage of the Queen Mother's Funeral in 2002 and the Royal Wedding in 2011. Byford established and chaired the BBC's Editorial Standards Board, which was responsible for promoting the BBC's standards in ethics and programme-making across the corporation. He also established and chaired the Complaints Management Board, which oversaw the handling of complaints across the BBC. In addition, he was the chair of the BBC Academy Board co-ordinating all its training and development. He was in overall charge of the BBC's planning for the

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as chair of the London 2012 Steering Group. On 12 October 2010 it was announced that Byford had accepted voluntary redundancy. He stood down from the Executive Board in March 2011 and left the corporation in June 2011.Neil Midgle
"BBC's Mark Byford made redundant"
''The Daily Telegraph'', 11 October 2010 After leaving the BBC, Byford became a writer as well as focusing on voluntary and charitable work. His first book, ''A Name on a Wall'', about an American soldier killed in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, was published by

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in November 2013. His second book, ''The Annunciation: A Pilgrim's Quest'', a personal search to understand the meaning of

Luke's Gospel The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...

story, was published in April 2018. He is currently a

lay canon A canon (from the Latin , itself derived from the Greek , , "relating to a rule", "regular") is a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, i ...

and member of the chapter at

Winchester Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winches ...

. He is also a governor at the

University of Winchester , mottoeng = Wisdom and Knowledge , established = 1840 - Winchester Diocesan Training School1847 - Winchester Training College1928 - King Alfred's College2005 - University of Winchester , type = Public research university ...

; a trustee of the Winchester Hospice fundraising charity; and a trustee of Play to the Crowd, the charity that runs Winchester Theatre Royal and the Hat Fair. He was made a vice president of the RNLI in 2019 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the charity whilst a trustee from 2012 to 2019, where he was chair of the audit and risk committee, and previously chair of the fundraising and communications committee.

Early life

Byford was born in

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins th ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. He spent his early years living around the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, where his father, Sir Lawrence Byford, served as a policeman. Sir Lawrence went on to Chief Constable of Lincolnshire, and later, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary. Mark was educated at Lincoln School which later became Lincoln Christ's Hospital Comprehensive School. He returned to West Yorkshire in 1976, studying law at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, where he was president of Devonshire Hall. Immediately on graduating he joined the BBC in 1979, aged 20, as a "temporary holiday relief assistant" working as a researcher over the summer holiday in his local ('' Look North'') television newsroom in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

. After three months' vacation work, he joined the BBC full-time.

Career with the BBC

In 1981, aged just 22, he produced the Royal Television Society's Regional News Programme of the Year – a '' BBC Look North'' special on unemployment in the North of England. The following year, in 1982, he produced the award-winning edition again – this time with ''

South Today ''BBC South Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the south of England, covering Hampshire, Isle of Wight, West Sussex, much of Dorset and parts of Berkshire, Surrey and Wiltshire. Since 2000, an opt-out of the main program ...

'' in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. In 1987 he became head of news at BBC Bristol before becoming home editor BBC News and current affairs, responsible for all television network newsgathering coverage across the UK. There he led the BBC's coverage of the Clapham rail crash, the Kegworth M1 air crash, the

Lockerbie bombing Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by ''Clipper Maid of the Seas'', a Boe ...

, the Hillsborough football tragedy, and the ''Marchioness'' riverboat disaster. In 1990 he returned to Leeds as head of centre. In 1991 he became controller of regional broadcasting. He joined the BBC's board of management in 1996 as Director, Regional Broadcasting, responsible for the BBC's activities in the UK outside London. In 1997–98, he drew up the BBC's response to devolution and helped to devise and implement the policy to increase the level of network programming production outside London. In 1998 he became director of the BBC World Service and then head of the BBC's multi-media global news division in 2002. In January 2004 he became Deputy Director-General of the BBC but within three weeks of his appointment,

Greg Dyke Gregory Dyke (born 20 May 1947) is a British media executive, football administrator, journalist, and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has had a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing ' ...

resigned as

Director-General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

, following the publication of the Hutton Report. Byford was appointed by the Board of Governors as Acting Director-General, a role that he undertook for five months. During this period, Byford had a lead role in producing ''Building Public Value'', the BBC's Charter renewal manifesto. When Mark Thompson was appointed Director-General of the BBC in June 2004, Byford's role was enlarged to take responsibility for all the BBC's journalism at UK, international and local levels – the first time such a post had been established. In July 2006 he also became responsible for

. In June 2008 the BBC's governing body, the

BBC Trust The BBC Trust was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of ...

, in a direct criticism of

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, instructed Byford and his editors to "improve the range, clarity and precision of its network coverage of the different UK nations and regions". The Trust said the BBC was "falling short of its own high standards" and, in part, failing to meet its core purpose of helping inform democracy. Three years later, Professor Anthony King, the author of the original report for the Trust, said there "had been enormous change in how the BBC reported the devolved nations. They make many fewer mistakes than they used to." As chair of the BBC's Editorial Standards Board, Byford led the executive response to the faked competitions scandals that engulfed the BBC in 2007, including designing the special training programme Safeguarding Trust which more than 17,000 members of staff had to attend. In November 2008, he led the investigation into the Brand/Ross affair and produced the special report that was published subsequently by the BBC Trust. He is a fellow of The

Radio Academy The Radio Academy is a registered charity dedicated to "the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK broadcasting and audio production". It was formed in 1983 and is run via a board of trustees, with a chair and a deputy chair ...

. He was a first board member of the joint industry radio research body,

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...

, in the early 1990s and was also a board member of

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, the television audience research body. He was a trustee of the '' Children in Need'' charity from 1992 to 1996. In 1999, he established the BBC World Service Trust, the BBC's international development charity, which used media and communications to reduce poverty and promote education and human rights around the world. In July 2010, it was revealed that Byford had flown on business to the World Cup in South Africa, business class at a cost of £4,878. This came against a background of further cuts in BBC News, for which Byford was responsible. On 12 October 2010 it was announced Byford was leaving the corporation after thirty-two years and the Deputy Director-General post closed as part of the BBC's cutbacks in senior management costs. Byford left the Executive Board of the BBC at the end of March 2011, and his BBC employment ended in the early summer after he led the Royal Wedding coverage, reportedly with a redundancy/notice package of between £800,000 and £900,000. On his retirement ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' commented: "If he has a public profile at all it is because Byford came to symbolise the apparent excesses of top executive pay at the corporation. There he was, grey man with a job for life, half a million pounds in salary and, because he had been at the BBC so long without ever leaving, an uncapped two-thirds final salary pension entitlement and no obvious market rate comparator to justify such riches. It was very easy to put the question, as even many lower ranking BBC staff did – who else would pay Mark Byford £500,000 and for what? – knowing there was no very good answer." However, the remainder of that article, written by media commentator Steve Hewlett, suggested that his presence might be missed greatly at the BBC. "He made things happen and by common consent brought a firm moral sense to everything he did, rising above his own particular interests." It went on to highlight how he was a stabilising influence on Director-General Mark Thompson. That opinion appeared highly prophetic in the light of the two major ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

'' scandals – concerning Jimmy Savile and

Lord McAlpine Robert Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green (14 May 1942 – 17 January 2014) was a British businessman, politician and author who was an advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. McAlpine was descended from the McAlpine baronets ...

respectively – which engulfed the BBC within 18 months of Byford's departure. Both of those incidents led to widespread adverse criticism of high level management of journalism within the BBC and were surrounded by suggestions that the Director-General of the day was not sufficiently informed about issues highly significant for the BBC's reputation.
/ref> The subsequent Pollard Review highlighted that several witnesses had said "they believe the Savile affair and, in particular, the BBC's poor handling of it after the investigation was halted, would not have happened if the role of Deputy Director-General occupied by Mark Byford had still been in existence." Media commentators agreed with that view. Professor Stewart Purvis said: "He watched the DG's back and he watched the BBC's back.

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

once declared: "Every Prime Minister needs a Willie ( Whitelaw). Now the chorus is growing that every DG needs a Mark B." Peter Preston described him as: "a news aware Deputy, a safety net, a mopper up of perilous trifles." After leaving the BBC, Byford pursued a fresh path as a writer of non-fiction. His first book, ''A Name On A Wall: Two Men, Two Wars, Two Destinies'' was published by Mainstream in 2013. It tells the contrasting stories of an American soldier, Larry Byford, killed in the

in 1967 and his own father, Lawry Byford, who served alongside the Americans in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. Jan C. Scruggs, the President and Founder of the

Vietnam Veterans Memorial The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a U.S. national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The site is dominated by two black granite walls engraved with the names of those ...

, described it as "an amazing journey that unfolded as a mission. An extraordinary experience like nothing ever done before in America. It's important. It matters." Julian Pettifer, the BAFTA award-winning Vietnam War reporter, wrote "This tale should be compulsory reading for MPs and military leaders and anyone else who might lead us into armed conflict. An absorbing and meticulously researched work." His second book, ''The Annunciation: A Pilgrim's Quest'', was published by Winchester University Press in April 2018. Inspired by a chance viewing of an Annunciation painting by

François Lemoyne François Lemoyne or François Le Moine (; 1688 – 4 June 1737) was a French rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which co ...

in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

, on loan from

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

, he searches for the spiritual meaning of Luke's biblical story through intimate conversations with more than a hundred senior clerics, theologians and art historians, as well as viewing more than a hundred acclaimed Annunciation images, during a three-year 30,000 mile journey.

Personal life

He is married to Hilary Bleiker, whom he met whilst at Leeds University where she studied English, and they have five adult children, two sons and three daughters. He was awarded an honorary

Doctor of Law A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...

degree by the University of Leeds in 2008. He and his family live in Winchester. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the

, and in 2010 an honorary doctorate by the

University of Lincoln , mottoeng = Freedom through wisdom , established = 1861 – Hull School of Art1905 – Endsleigh College1976 – Hull College1992 – University of Humberside1996 – University of Lincolnshire and Humberside2001 � ...

, the city where he spent his teenage years. He has been a

and member of chapter at Winchester Cathedral since 2017. He has been a governor of the University of Winchester since 2014; a trustee of the Winchester Hospice Fundraising Charity since 2018; and a trustee of Play to the Crowd, the charity that runs Winchester Theatre Royal and the Hat Fair, since 2018. He was made a vice president of the RNLI in 2019 in recognition of his outstanding contribution as a trustee from 2012 to 2019.

References

External links

Becomes Acting Director General

Video message celebrating seventy years of the World Service

University of Leeds Alumni
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byford, Mark 1958 births Living people Alumni of the University of Leeds BBC executives English editors English male journalists People educated at Lincoln Grammar School People from Castleford