Biographies

Managing Director of Content & Production, BBC Worldwide

Wayne Garvie is BBC Worldwide's Managing Director of Content & Production.

He joined BBC Worldwide in January 2006 to develop ways to secure and produce content for the company, and to manage vital investment relationships with BBC Production and with the independent production community.

Over the last two years, Wayne has led Worldwide's production strategy both in the UK and around the world.

Under his direction, the company help set up new UK producers such as Left Bank Pictures and Cliffhanger, as well as investing in existing companies such as Baby Cow, Big Talk, Clerkenwell and Hardy Pictures.

Internationally, Wayne established Worldwide's first production centre in Los Angeles, producers of the hugely successful Dancing With The Stars, as well as conceiving wholly-owned production companies in New York, Mumbai and Paris.

During his tenure, Worldwide has also taken shares in companies in Sydney, Toronto, Moscow and Buenos Aires, as it builds an international network of production companies.

Before joining BBC Worldwide, Wayne was the BBC's Head of Entertainment Group. Wayne is credited with having transformed the department during his four years in the position.

He employed a new generation of creative leaders and a host of innovative new shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, Dragons' Den, Honey, We're Killing the Kids, Hardspell and The House of Tiny Tearaways.

Before becoming Head of Entertainment Group in 2001, Wayne was Head of Entertainment and Features for BBC Manchester. While in that role he developed the I Love... franchise and repositioned BBC Manchester as a key supplier of entertainment programmes for both the BBC and its commercial partners worldwide.

He joined BBC Manchester in August 1998 from Granada Television where he had worked in the Sports, Regional, Factual and Entertainment divisions before being appointed in 1996 as Director of Broadcasting, responsible for maintaining Britain's largest independent television franchise.

Wayne is the current Chair of the Royal Television Society, a trustee of the National Museum of Labour History and holds a PhD in Economic and Social History. He is also Visiting Professor of Media at the University of Chester.