Former Ofcom Wales director set to be new chairman of S4C
FORMER Ofcom Wales Director Rhodri Williams is on course to be appointed the new chair of S4C, it has been announced.
Baroness Nicky Morgan, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, said Mr Williams was her preferred candidate for the post following an open recruitment exercise.
A joint meeting of the Committee for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport and Welsh Affairs Select Committees will hold a pre-appointment hearing with Mr Williams as soon as House of Commons committees are formed.
The committees’ conclusions will be considered carefully before deciding whether or not to proceed with the appointment.
Mr Williams was Ofcom’s director in Wales from 2004 until March 2018, leading the communications regulator’s work in Wales and its engagement with the Welsh Government, elected representatives and stakeholders.
In October 2017 the regulator concluded that it broke its own procurement rules when a contract was awarded to Deryn, a lobbying firm run by two former Labour special advisers, Cathy Owens and Huw Roberts and ex Plaid Cymru AM Nerys Evans. Mr Roberts and Ms Evans sat on Ofcom’s advisory committee for Wales at the time the contract was awarded.
An Ofcom inquiry decided that the way the contract was given to Deryn “was not consistent with Ofcom’s required processes and a competitive procurement should have been undertaken”.
Prior to joining Ofcom, Mr Williams served as chair of the Welsh Language Board from 1999 to 2004.
He began his career as a journalist with ITV in Wales in 1982, working on S4C’s flagship current affairs series Y Byd ar Bedwar.
In 1989 he co-founded independent production company Agenda Television (now Tinopolis) which soon became Wales’ largest production company.
He was the founding editor of S4C’s nightly magazine programme Heno, which remains at the heart of S4C’s output.
Mr Williams joined the S4C Authority in July 2018 and is currently the chair of its content committee. Since November 2019 he has been a member of the board of the Consumer Council for Water and the chair of its Wales Committee. He lives in Carmarthenshire with his wife Elinor and two children.
The appointment of the S4C chair has to be made on merit, and following a fair, open, and transparent competition, regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
The previous S4C chair, Huw Jones, left the organisation at the end of September 2019. Hugh Hesketh Evans is interim chair until the end of March.