Savile row BBC boss moves to new radio role

Helen Boaden, the executive in charge of BBC News when the Jimmy Savile controversy erupted, is to move to a new role heading the corporation’s radio networks.

By The Newsroom

Published 15th Feb 2013, 04:00 BST

Former Culture Secretary James Purnell is to join the BBC in a major strategic role.

The appointments have been made by incoming director-general Tony Hall before he takes up his position in April.

Ms Boaden has been director of news at the BBC for eight-and-a-half years but had to step aside for a spell from November last year in the wake of the Savile investigations.

She will become director of BBC Radio from April 15. She has previously been the controller of Radio 4, prior to taking up her news role in September 2004.

Mr Purnell will return to the BBC, where he had been head of corporate planning in the 1990s before becoming a Labour MP.

After stepping back from politics, he has been working at production firm Rare Day.