Anne Christine Bulford (born 22 September 1959) is a British media executive who was the most recent Deputy Director-General of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, and the first woman to hold the position.

Early life

Bulford was born in Wirral, England. She graduated from

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

where she was a lay member of Council and Honorary Treasurer until July 2012. She is a trained chartered accountant.

Career

KPMG and first period at the BBC

She worked for twelve years with

KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...

. She left KPMG in 1993 to become Head of Internal Audit at the BBC. She was subsequently appointed Finance Director of Regional Broadcasting and then, following an internal reorganisation became the first Finance Director of BBC Production.

Return to the BBC

Bulford left the BBC in 1999 to join

Carlton Communications Carlton Communications plc was a British media company. It was led by Michael P. Green and listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1983 until 2 February 2004, when it was bought by Granada plc in a corporate takeover to form ITV plc. Carlton s ...

. From 2002 to 2005, Bulford was Director of Finance & Business Affairs at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

, before being hired by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, becoming their Chief Operating Officer, following a period as interim Chief Executive. Bulford re-joined the BBC as a member of their finance and operations team in June 2013. In June 2016 it was announced that she would take up the role of Deputy Director-General. The BBC announced her salary in September 2017 to be £435,000 per annum. In January 2019, Bulford announced her plans to leave the BBC in the spring of that year, hoping to pursue a portfolio of non-executive roles. On her decision,

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

Tony Hall said, "Anne has been an inspirational leader. She has brought real insight and determination in bringing change to the BBC." Already

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE), Bulford was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

2020 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2020 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...

for services to broadcasting and charity.

Personal life

Bulford is currently a Trustee of the Motor Neurone Disease Association and also of the

Conservatoire for Dance and Drama The Conservatoire for Dance and Drama was a higher education institution in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2001 to bring together a number of schools providing higher-level vocational training in the performing arts. The official website s ...

. She married David Smith on 11 May 1991 at

Rowley, East Riding of Yorkshire Rowley is a small village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated south of Little Weighton and approximately south-west of Beverley town centre. The civil parish is formed by the vi ...

. Her husband rang church bells at

Market Weighton Market Weighton ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is one of the main towns in the East Yorkshire Wolds and lies midway between Kingston upon Hull, Hull and York, about from e ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulford, Anne Living people 1959 births Alumni of University College London BBC executives BBC Board members British television executives Channel 4 people English accountants British women accountants KPMG people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Market Weighton People from the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Royal Opera House