Rona Fairhead confirmed as the new BBC Trust Chairman

Rona Fairhead has been formally appointed at a Privy Council this evening (8th October 2014) and will take up her new post as the Chairman of the BBC Trust from tomorrow. Lord Patten stood down as BBC Trust Chairman in May this year on health grounds after three years in the position. Mrs Fairhead is a former Chairman and CEO of the Financial Times Group, and former non-executive director of the Economist Group. She was a non-executive member of the board of the Cabinet Office, but stood down after being selected as the preferred candidate for the BBC Trust Chairman. She is also a British Business Ambassador.

Rona Fairhead

Rona Fairhead CBE is an independent non-executive director of HSBC Holdings plc and non-executive chairman of HSBC North America Holdings Inc. She is also a non-executive director of PepsiCo Inc.

She served as chairman and chief executive officer of the Financial Times Group for seven years until 2013 and as non-executive director of The Economist Group from 2006 to 2014. She was an executive director of their owners, Pearson plc, from 2002 to 2013, serving as Pearson’s chief financial officer from 2002 to 2006. She was chairman of Interactive Data Corporation (an NYSE-listed company) from 2006 to 2010.

Prior to joining Pearson, Mrs Fairhead held a variety of leadership positions at Bombardier Inc., in the Aerospace division, and at Imperial Chemical Industries plc, a specialty chemicals company, where she ultimately served as executive vice president of strategy and group financial control.

Rona was awarded a CBE in 2012 and was appointed a British Business Ambassador in 2014. She was a non-executive member of the Cabinet Office board but stood down on being selected as the preferred candidate for the BBC Trust Chairman.

She has an MA in Law from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge where she is an Honorary Fellow and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Teesside University in 2010.