Last updated August 2008
Category: Scotland; Senior Staff
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Ken MacQuarrie became Controller, BBC Scotland in April 2004.
He had been Head of Programmes since 2000 where he had responsibility for production and commissioning of all BBC output broadcast in Scotland on television, radio and online.
A native of Mull and a Gaelic speaker, Ken was educated at Oban, Edinburgh University and Moray House College of Education before joining BBC Scotland as a researcher in 1975.
He went on to work as a radio producer for BBC Highland before transferring to television in 1979, where he worked as a producer in Glasgow.
During this period Ken MacQuarrie introduced daily Gaelic children's programmes on television, developed the investigative current affairs programme Prosbaig and launched the award-winning series Eorpa and De a-Nis?
In 1992 he became both Head of Gaelic and Features and of Children's, complementing the output in gaelic with English language factual programmes and also setting up a children's production base for the UK networks which is now the largest production base for children's television outside London.
Four years later Ken MacQuarrie was appointed Head of Broadcast and in 2000 became Head of Programmes.
Among the major projects he has overseen in that role are In Search Of Scotland, Chewin' The Fat, Still Game, Gruth Is Uachdar (Crowdie And Cream) and Scotland's Empire on television and, on Radio Scotland, Gracenotes, Off The Ball and Lesley Riddoch.
A former board member of the Scottish Film Council and the Celtic Film and Television Association, he has also taken a leading role in a number of BBC internal initiatives such as the move to Pacific Quay.
He is a board member of the University of Glasgow's School of Business and Management Strategic Advisory Board.
Ken is married with three children and among his many interests are sailing, reading and walking.
