BBC announce Radio 4 controller shortlist

Tim Davies has now cut down the long list of 14 names to 5.

Peter Barron the former Newsnight editor left the BBC in July 2008 to join Google as head of communications. He spent 12 years working on Newsnight, taking up the editorship in 2004 where he introduced several digital media features such as daily emails and a vodcast. Upon joining Google he said: “Google is the most interesting and exciting company of my lifetime”.

George Entwistle, controller of BBC Knowledge,  joined the BBC as a trainee in 1989. As well as heading up the BBC’s factual output, where commissions have included the award-winning documentary Iran and the West, he was also acting head of BBC4 during the then controller Janice Hadlow’s sabbatical.

Tim Suter, former Ofcom partner, and former BBC executive - worked as a reporter, producer and editor. He was the head of the government’s broadcasting policy during the first converged Communications Act and was a founding partner of Ofcom.

Mary Hockaday, head of the BBC multimedia newsroom and replaced Peter Horrocks as multimedia newsroom boss last year, having been his deputy since 2007 where she also led the on demand and radio news teams and the internal mediawire service. She is currently responsible for all TV, radio and online news output. She was previously editor of BBC World Service news and current affairs between 2001 and 2006, before becoming deputy head of BBC radio news, overseeing output for Radio 4 programme’s Today, World at One, PM, World Tonight, and Radio 5 Live.

Gwyneth Williams, director of BBC World Service’s English Networks and News. She has been in her World Service role since July 2007 and is responsible for all the BBC’s international radio programmes in English. She was Head of Radio Current Affairs and Editor of the BBC Reith Lectures. Her department’s output included programmes such as File On 4, Analysis, From Our Own Correspondent, Moneybox and In Business.

As quite a lot of the work that passes my hand currently goes out on Radio 4 I will be watching this with interest!!