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State-educated Welsh speaker is new BBC chief

By Daily Telegraph Reporter

A STATE-EDUCATED Welsh speaker will be the acting BBC chairman after Richard Sharp’s resignation.

Prof Dame Elan Closs Stephens was appointed to lead the BBC’s board yesterday by Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary, for 12 months or until a new permanent chairman has been found.

The Oxford alumna pledged to “champion the licence fee payer across all of the UK”.

It comes after Mr Sharp, 67, quit in April after being found to have broken rules on public appointments.

Prof Stephens, a 74-year-old mother of two who lives in Aberystwyth, has been a member of the BBC’s governing body since 2010.

She is currently the Pro Chancellor and Professor Emerita in communications and creative industries at Aberystwyth University, alongside her role as is the Electoral Commissioner for Wales and member of the UK Electoral Commission Board.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said that “Dame Elan is a native Welsh speaker” and “was educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle, a comprehensive school in the quarry valleys of North Wales and won an open scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford”.

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2023-06-03T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-03T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://dailytelegraph.pressreader.com/article/281586654984871

Daily Telegraph