The BBC’s COO Exiting the Company

LONDON: Caroline Thomson, the chief operating officer at the BBC, is leaving her role at the end of the month, with the COO post closed as part of a restructure of the senior team.

The BBC’s new director-general, George Entwistle, confirmed that he is closing the COO role as part of the restructure. Thomson started with the BBC as a journalism trainee in 1975. She went on to produce a range of BBC radio and TV programs. She briefly left the company in 1984 to join Channel 4 as the head of corporate affairs. She returned to the BBC in 1996 as deputy director of the BBC World service.

Entwistle commented: “I want to mark this moment by paying tribute to Caroline’s enormous contribution to the BBC over many years now. She was pivotal in winning the last charter for us, when her impeccable strategic leadership helped deliver a clearly defined ten-year mission for the BBC, securing our purposes and funding through to 2016.

"More recently, she’s delivered a strikingly successful Digital Switchover Programme, which will come to an end next month in Belfast, on time and under budget. She has also shaped and led the biggest transformational projects of the last few years, making possible this building and the BBC’s new home at Media City in Salford—plus the recently announced sale of Television Centre for £200 million, a brilliant deal by any standard. Caroline will leave at the end of September and will take our affection and gratitude with her.”

Thomson added: “It has been an immense privilege to be part of the leadership of the BBC—the world’s best public service broadcaster. Wonderful programs, brilliant colleagues and a real sense of public purpose, what more could you ask? I wish George and his colleagues the best of luck as they take the BBC forward—I know it will be safe in their hands.”