Acting BBC chair says corporation feels a debt of gratitude to Richard Sharp

She took over from Mr Sharp in an interim position.

Dame Elan Closs Stephens. (BBC) (PA Media)

Acting BBC chair Dame Elan Closs Stephens has said the corporation feels a “debt of gratitude” to Richard Sharp.

Dame Elan was speaking on her first day in the new role, which had been announced as Tuesday when she was appointed to the interim position last month.

Mr Sharp resigned after a report found he breached the rules around public appointments following an introduction which led to then-prime minister Boris Johnson getting an £800,000 loan guarantee.

Asked by BBC Radio 2 presenter Tina Daheley if Mr Sharp’s exit as chairman had damaged the corporation, Dame Elan said: “There’s no doubt that we’ve gone through a difficult period of time and I’m sure that staff and the board and Richard himself were unnerved by what happened over the past few months.

“All of us feel a debt of gratitude to Richard for the way in which he committed himself to the organisation during his two years.

“But the organisation as a whole is about the creativity and the news values and the production values of all the people who work in it.”

Dame Elan added the BBC needs to “re-establish the confidence and the ambition in that output and to know that the board is fully behind the creativity of the organisation”.

She also said the corporation needs “energy and pace” to take on the “awful lot to be done”.

Dame Elan, who has been a member of the BBC’s governing body since 2010, said: “I am absolutely confident that this is an organisation which is capable of transforming itself into another modern period of time and I’m confident that the board and the executive jointly as a unitary board will be leading the way.

“But I’m also confident that it as a whole, as a body of staff, we have the most amazing people and we have to just make certain that we are developing everybody’s expertise as much as we possibly can.”

She has had several roles with the BBC, including as chairwoman of its commercial subsidiary and the member for Wales when the board was the BBC Trust.

Dame Elan, who will be acting chairwoman for 12 months or until a new permanent chairperson has been appointed, also said she and the board think the Government should employ “head-hunters” to find the right candidate to replace her.

She added: “It should be as diverse a field as possible and that there should be some really very strong candidates from all walks of life if we can, with the necessary experience to take on this role.

“It’s not a time for standing still. Although the period in which I’m going to be chair is quite short, we need to get on with the job.”

Dame Elan, a native Welsh speaker who lives in Aberystwyth, said her being the first person from her comprehensive school to win a scholarship to Oxford is not because she is “brighter “or “more intellectual than other people”.

She added: “It’s just that there are so many people who never had the chance and so I believe passionately in chances for people, in giving people the opportunity.

“I think the BBC is something that gives people and could give opportunity. Our apprenticeship schemes, for example, are about that and I actually passionately believe in it as a public good.”

Former Goldman Sachs banker Mr Sharp, who was appointed in early 2021, announced he would step down as chair in April this year when he was over halfway into his four-year term.

He said at the time he had acted in “good faith” and had the “best of intentions”.

Following the inquiry into Mr Sharp by barrister Adam Heppinstall KC, the former BBC chairman said: “Mr Heppinstall’s view is that while I did breach the governance code for public appointments, he states very clearly that a breach does not necessarily invalidate an appointment.

“Indeed, I have always maintained the breach was inadvertent and not material, which the facts he lays out substantiate.”