Ken MacQuarrie, Director, Nations and Regions

Category: Disclosed Staff

Roles and responsibilities

  • Kenny is Director, Nations & Regions and sits on both the BBC Board and Executive Committee.
  • He has responsibility at board level for the BBC’s Nations & Regions Division.

Biography

Last updated May 2018

Ken MacQuarrie is the BBC's Director, Nations and Regions.

Appointed to the newly created role in September 2016, Ken is responsible for bringing together and enhancing the BBC’s offer to the nations and regions of the UK and sits on the BBC’s Executive Committee.

He is responsible for the BBC Nations & Regions Division. This comprises of the Nations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and the Directors of the regional hubs in the North, Midlands and the South West; and on 1 April 2018, the English Regions department moved into the division, ensuring there is a single voice and responsibility at the highest level of the BBC for the services which are so valued by audiences across the length and breadth of the UK.

The Nations & Regions division is one of the largest divisions in the BBC with around 2,800 people working for the BBC in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and 3,000 within English Regions.

The division produces a range of content across TV, Radio and Online that entertains audiences locally, across all of the UK and globally.

Prior to taking up this position Ken was Director, BBC Scotland, a job he held since 2009.

Ken was instrumental in securing the funding and approvals for the BBC’s £188m investment in the new BBC Scotland digital broadcast production Headquarters at Pacific Quay in Glasgow and since then has overseen a business which has grown in size each year and which now has an annual spend of around £200m. He was also responsible for delivering BBC ALBA, the Gaelic television service which, in a unique partnership with MG Alba, now reaches a weekly audience of over 650,000 viewers.

In 2014, he was Chair of the BBC’s Commonwealth Games Steering Group, which brought together BBC Sport and BBC Scotland to deliver one of the UK’s most ambitious and successful broadcast sporting events of recent years. At the same time, as Chair of the BBC’s Independence Referendum Steering Group, he led the collaborations, across the BBC that delivered coverage of each step of the journey to the vote on the constitutional future of Scotland and the United Kingdom.

He was Controller, BBC Scotland from 2004-2009 when he was in charge of production and commissioning of all BBC output broadcast in Scotland on television, radio and online.

As Head of Programmes from 2000-2004, among the major projects he oversaw included: 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 and Off The Ball.

Between 1996 and 2000 Ken was Head of Broadcast and prior to that he was Head of Gaelic and Features and Children's (1992-1996), complementing the output in Gaelic with English language factual programmes and also setting up a children's production base for the UK networks. During this period Ken 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?

Ken joined the BBC in Scotland as a researcher in 1975 before becoming a radio and then TV producer.

He was educated at Oban, Edinburgh University and Moray House College of Education.

Ken is currently a Board member and Vice-Chair of the International Press Institute (IPI), an Executive Board member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and a Vice-President of the Royal Television Society (RTS).

Salary and total remuneration

Salary: £325,000

Total remuneration: £325,000

This information is correct as of October 2018.

Expenses and central bookings

Expenses are costs incurred by BBC staff on behalf of the BBC and claimed through the BBC's expenses system (e-expenses). Central bookings are costs incurred on behalf of the BBC and booked through the BBC's central bookings system. Both expenses and central bookings are published every three months.

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Gifts and Hospitality Register

Gifts and hospitality may only be accepted in line with BBC policy. Information about gifts and hospitality is published every three months.

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  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q1 2018-19
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q4 2017-18
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q3 2017-18
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q2 2017-18
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q1 2017-18
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q4 2016-17
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q3 2016-17
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q2 2016-17
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q1 2016-17
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q4 2015-16
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q3 2015-16
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q2 2015-16
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q1 2015-16
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q4 2014-15
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q3 2014-15
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q2 2014-15
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q1 2014-15
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q4 2013-14
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q3 2013-14
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q2 2013-14
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q1 2013-14
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q4 2012-13
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q3 2012-13
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q2 2012-13
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q1 2012-13
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q4 2011-12
  • Ken MacQuarrie's Gifts and Hospitality Register Q3 2011-12 PDF (27KB)
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q2 2011-12
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q1 2011-12
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q4 2010-11
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q3 2010-11
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q2 2010-11
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q1 2010-11
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q4 2009-10
  • Ken MacQuarrie's Gifts and Hospitality Register Q3 2009-10 PDF (37KB)
  • Ken MacQuarrie's Gifts and Hospitality Register Q2 2009-10 PDF (31KB)
  • Ken MacQuarrie had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q1 2009-10

Declaration of personal interests

Staff must make a declaration of their personal and business interests, including any memberships or directorships of public or industry bodies, and any shareholdings, as well as any interests that their immediate families may also have.

A summary is published where there is something to declare and where there is nothing to declare. Occasionally an individual will have something to declare but due to the personal nature of the declaration we do not publish details as to do so would breach the General Data Protection Regulation.

This information is published annually, although if any amendments are made during the year an updated summary will be published if necessary as soon as it is available.

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