BBC’s top woman boss quits in wake of pay row
THE BBC’s most senior female boss has quit unexpectedly – amid reports that she was fed up with defending its gender pay gap.
Anne Bulford, 59, deputy director general and the BBC’s highest-paid woman executive on £435,000 a year, is leaving the broadcaster just as it faces an era of savage cost-cutting.
She is expected to swap her BBC job for a portfolio career with a string of non-executive directorships.
As the corporation’s most senior woman and the figure in charge of its finances, Miss Bulford had effectively become the front-woman for the BBC’s shocking pay gap.
She was frequently nominated to discuss the matter at press conferences and on radio and television.
But insiders said yesterday that she ‘absolutely loathes’ talking publicly about the row, and would often try to duck media appearances.
‘She is the most senior woman, so she is wheeled out to talk about this, which she hates,’ a source said.
Miss Bulford, who joined as managing director of finance and operations in 2013, was regularly pressed by angry colleagues about the pay gap and she faced numerous grillings by MPs on the digital, culture, media and sport select committee.
The gender pay row erupted in 2017, when the corporation was forced by the Government to publish salary details of its biggest earners on £150,000 or more. Licence fee payers were angered by the huge numbers, but even more by the then lack of women on the list.
In 2017, just two of the BBC’s top 20 highest-paid stars were female – Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz. The broadcaster was then forced to give pay rises to more than 300 staff to even out the imbalance. It has also been tasked with stripping out £800million of costs by 2022 and Miss Bulford was charged with delivering the cuts.
But insiders said she was growing increasingly angered by being overruled by director general Lord Tony Hall. A source said: ‘Her job is to make savings, but Tony is a spender. That becomes very frustrating’.
Lord Hall yesterday called Miss Bulford an ‘inspirational leader’. And Miss Bulford said: ‘It’s been an honour to be the first woman deputy director general of the BBC...I feel I’m leaving the BBC in a stronger position.’
Her exit could leave the BBC even more lacking in senior female executives than when the pay row started. Nine of the 15 people on its executive committee are men. The BBC will be under pressure to appoint another woman to the role – but there is no obvious female candidate.
‘Hates being wheeled out’