“Energy” and “resilience” were identified by outgoing BBC boss Tim Davie today as the key traits required of his successor.
Davie is stepping down from his Director General role after nearly six years and when considering the sort of person who should replace him, he said the thinking should not be around “technical things,” but character.
“At the end of the day this isn’t for the faint hearted,” said Davie. “I worry about where public life is going, it is brutal and can be very personal.”
Therefore, his successor, of which we understand there are two or three names left in the frame including former Google EMEA boss Matt Brittin, should “have the energy to do it, skipping to the office saying, ‘I just lucked out here’.”
“A few air miles before you arrive in [BBC HQ] Broadcasting House,” would be helpful, he added, whether internal or external, while, of course, luck is a necessity. “Public life can give you 10 days or 10 years, you can burn up on impact,” added Davie.
In conversation with Rest is Entertainment host Richard Osman at an RTS event today in London, Davie said the “toughest thing to manage during my tenure” was “polarization and the culture wars,” coming off the back of a set of scandals that overshadowed his time including the Gaza documentary, Glastonbury Bob Vylan saga, Donald Trump Panorama SNAFU and, most recently, BAFTA slur controversy. “I remember seeing myself at a bus stop being condemned for being an Israeli government sympathizer after reading an article with outrage at my pro-Palestinian bias,” he recalled. “I know the risks of metropolitan thinking and institutional blindspots, but to portray the BBC as being driven by a particular political agenda is simply wrong.”
He harked a long way back when questioned on his most difficult stretch at the BBC, landing on the Russell Brand-Jonathan Ross prank call saga from nearly 20 years ago when he was head of audio and music. “Towing the line” while then-BBC Director General Mark Thompson “tried to get back from holiday” was not easy, Davie said.
He leaves the BBC in three weeks’ time.
