Big bucks Banker Corporation
Rishi’s old boss at Goldman Sachs to land £160k BBC role
A FORMER Goldman Sachs banker who used to be Rishi Sunak’s boss has been named as the new chairman of the BBC.
Richard Sharp, who once worked with Chancellor Mr Sunak at the investment bank, was favourite to get the role for months before finally being confirmed last night.
The Tory donor 64, will earn £160,000 for three to four days’ work a week when he replaces Sir David Clementi next month. The BBC faces intense competition from services such as Netflix and major questions over its funding model. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden last night said the new boss would ‘drive forward reforms’ to make sure the BBC ‘impartially reflects the country’.
As a senior director of investment bank Goldman sachs, Richard sharp was mentor to a fiercely bright financial analyst who, he predicted, would go on to great things. His assessment was spot on. That young analyst, one Rishi sunak, will next month mark his first anniversary as Chancellor. They remained close and sharp, reputedly worth hundreds of millions, has been working as an unpaid adviser to the Chancellor on the pandemic response.
Last year sharp helped sunak devise a £1.6billion rescue package for the devastated arts industries. Yesterday, the latest tranche of funding – £350million – was released by the Treasury giving ‘sharpie’ (as he is known to his friends) dual cause to celebrate, coinciding as it did with his confirmation as the next BBC chairman.
Boris Johnson was adamant that someone with Conservative credentials would get the job – sharp is a long-standing Tory donor to the tune of more than £400,000. Indeed, Charles Moore, ex-editor of The Daily Telegraph and an arch critic of the BBC, had been the frontrunner until he withdrew late last year for family reasons.
since then, the Prime Minister had been pushing sharp – who was a member of his economic advisory council when he was London mayor – to take the £160,000 post. His appointment follows that of former Tory councillor candidate Tim Davie as director-general. It marks a wholesale change in the BBC’s hierarchy which has long been perceived as Londoncentric and decidedly left leaning.
so who exactly is Richard sharp, the man now charged with protecting the BBC’s independence when it is under siege over equal pay, diversity and the abolition of free TV licences for over-75s? Will the licence fee survive his tenure?
In a 23-year career at Goldman sachs, sharp rose to become head of European investment. He was there at the same time as Mark Carney, who became Governor of the Bank of England in 2013. He left Goldmans in 2007, becoming chairman of the Royal Academy of Arts. When the pandemic hit, and the arts world buckled, sunak sought his old boss’s help.
SHARP also put together a £500million insurance deal to allow TV production to restart. It was while working with TV firms that he became convinced the BBC was in need of an overhaul. Before Christmas, sharp met with Tim Davie and the die was cast.
The son of Eric sharp, a civil servant later ennobled as Lord Grimsdyke, he studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford. His twin sister Dame Victoria
sharp is a senior High Court judge. A younger sister died of cancer and, deeply affected by the tragedy, sharp became a supporter of Tory Maurice saatchi’s campaign to improve cancer research. In 1987, he married Victoria Hull, a fellow Goldman banker, with whom he had three children, although they are now divorced.
A review of BBC finances is due in 2022 and no doubt this will be a priority for a man who, with 30 years’ experience in high finance, will have strong views on alternative funding if the licence fee is to be abolished. A senior Tory source said: ‘If Boris and Rishi want the licence fee gone, Richard sharp’s the man to do it.’