Biographies

Chief Executive, BBC Worldwide

John Smith is Chief Executive of BBC Worldwide.

He took the helm of BBC Worldwide in July 2004 and was confirmed as Chief Executive in March 2005.

John is responsible for the strategic leadership and development of BBC Worldwide's seven businesses around the world: Channels, Sales & Distribution, Magazines and Children's & Licensing, Home Entertainment, Content & Production, Digital Media and Global Brands. BBC Worldwide (including Lonely Planet) currently has around 2,900 staff based in 23 offices around the world.

BBC Worldwide is continually set challenging targets in order to return the best value to both the BBC and the rights' holders it represents around the world. In 2008/09 profit reached £103m (before exceptional items) on sales of £1.004bn.

Prior to joining BBC Worldwide, John was the BBC's Chief Operating Officer, and, during an 18-year career at the BBC, his other senior executive roles included Director of Finance, Property & Business Affairs and Finance Director.

John sat on the BBC's Executive Board from 1996 to 2009.

In 2004 John also led the Commercial Review of all the BBC's commercial activities and was responsible for the sale of BBC Technology to Siemens Business Services, and the sale of BBC Broadcast (now known as Red Bee) to Creative Broadcast Services Limited, a Macquarie Company.

John is a Director of the Henley Festival and Vice-President of the Royal Television Society. He is also non-executive director at Burberry.

He was a member of the Accounting Standards Board for three years until November 2004 and won the Accountancy Age Financial Director of the Year Award in 2001.