Roly Keating

Sir Roland Francis Kester Keating (born 5 August 1961) is a British executive who was chief executive of the British Library from September 2012 to December 2024.

Early life and education

Keating was born on 5 August 1961 to Donald Norman Keating and Betty Katharine Keating (''née'' Wells). He was educated at Westminster School, and then read classics at Balliol College, Oxford.

Career

BBC

Keating joined the BBC in 1983. He was a producer and director for the Arts and Music department, making programmes for '' Omnibus'', '' Bookmark'' (1992–97) and ''Arena''. He was a producer and later became editor of '' The Late Show''. In 1997, he became head of programming for UKTV, partly owned by the BBC. In 1999, he became the BBC Controller of Digital Channels. In 2000, he also took on the responsibility of Controller of Arts Commissioning. He became the Controller of digital television station BBC Four in December 2001, masterminding its launch on 2 March 2002. In 2003, he was also joint leader of the BBC's Charter Review project for six months. He became the channel controller for BBC Two in June 2004, a position he held until 2008. He was appointed temporary controller of BBC One following Peter Fincham's resignation on 5 October 2007.

While controller, he said that he wanted to see BBC Two be the first mainstream British television channel available on broadband. His decision to screen '' Jerry Springer: The Opera'' on 8 January 2005 forced him to go into hiding, and he was given security protection.

Keating was previously Director of Archive Content for the BBC. The Times alleged that he received a severance package of £375,000 due to his role being closed, which he later paid back in full after learning it wasn't authorised properly.

British Library

He was announced as chief executive designate of the British Library in May 2012, to succeed Dame Lynne Brindley.

As of 2015, Keating was paid a salary of between £155,000 and £159,999 by the British Library, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time. Keating received performance based bonuses of between £15,000 and £20,000 in the tax years 2019/20 and 2020/21, and again in the tax years 2022/23 and 2023/24. In February 2023, the Library had proposed a £500m community expansion, which would incorporate new galleries, event spaces, a community garden and The Alan Turing Institute, the UK's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence.

Keating was knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to literature.

In 2023, following the British Library cyberattack, Keating exclaimed a "degree of upset, of anger" over the most serious crisis the Library had encountered in decades. The incident highlighted criticisms of Keating's tenure, particularly regarding historic underinvestment in IT infrastructure and staff, which many believe left the Library vulnerable to such attacks. In his reflections on the incident, Keating admitted that this underinvestment had been a significant oversight. Writing on the British Library blog, Keating said '...Although this kind of attack was something we had prepared for and rehearsed, and had taken steps to guard against, it was no less of a shock when it happened.'

In April 2024, 6 months after the cyber attack, Keating gave 12 months notice of his resignation as Chief Executive of the British Library, effective April 2025. He stepped down in January 2025, and was succeeded as chief executive by Rebecca Lawrence.

Personal life

In 1989, Keating married Caroline Russell. Together they have three children; one son and two daughters.

References

External links

Archived version of BBC Biography for Roly Keating

Changing BBC TWO's idents in February 2007

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keating, Roly
1961 births
Living people
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
BBC executives
BBC Four controllers
BBC Two controllers
Knights Bachelor
People educated at Westminster School, London