David Cameron’s latest choice to run the BBC’s governing body faces questions about her role on the board of HSBC at a time when the bank allowed hundreds of millions of dollars of drug money to wash through international accounts.
Rona Fairhead, 53, a former executive at the company that owns the Financial Times, emerged as the government’s candidate to run the BBC Trust after Lord Coe, the prime minister’s original choice, withdrew and numerous other leading figures spurned invitations to apply.
Ms Fairhead’s selection to replace Lord Patten of Barnes, who resigned in May after a heart attack, was described as a “complete surprise” by a TV industry insider yesterday.
The businesswoman, who survived breast cancer in the past few years, would be the first woman to run the BBC’s governing body — at a crucial time for the corporation. Her appointment would guarantee the Tories a sympathetic, commercially minded figure at the heart of negotiations about the licence fee, even if they do not win the general election.
However, Ms Fairhead first has to get through a grilling by MPs on the Commons culture, media and sport committee next week. The hearing will include questions about her role as a director of HSBC, which was hit with a $1.9 billion fine by the US authorities in 2012 for flouting anti-money laundering regulations and sanctions against rogue regimes. HSBC has since overhauled its compliance policies.
Advertisement
The MPs also want to question Ms Fairhead about whether she is the right person to keep executive pay at the BBC in check when her own £1.2 million severance for leaving Pearson, the publishing group, resulted in a shareholder rebellion.
Labour MPs on the committee want to investigate Ms Fairhead’s political connections. Her husband Thomas, a banker, was a Conservative councillor in the Kensington and Chelsea, in London, for 16 years.
Philip Davies, a Conservative MP on the committee, said: “The committee will want to press her on her governance record at HSBC given it had money-laundering issues when she was on the board, and on her lack of experience and expertise in the broadcasting and regulatory sectors.
“It will be interesting to know if she feels that she is only being offered the role because of her gender.”
Ms Fairhead has a law degree from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and an MBA from Harvard University. She began her career as a management consultant in the early 1980s before joining Pearson in 2002.
Advertisement
She left the company last year after being passed over for the top job when Dame Marjorie Scardino stepped down.
“No one in our world has heard of her before,” one senior figure in broadcasting said. However, others said she was a competent candidate, who would be calm, quiet and measured under pressure and a stark contrast to Lord Patten. Lord Grade of Yarmouth, the former BBC and ITV chairman, said: “Great result for the BBC. Perfect candidate.”
Sir Peter Bazalgette, chairman of Arts Council England, said: “She can read a balance sheet and she understands media very well.”
While less well known than others tipped for the chairmanship, Ms Fairhead has influential connections: she and her husband have reportedly rented a cottage on the Highclere —estate, in Hampshire, where Downton Abbey is filmed, where they have socialised with establishment figures.
The role of chairman is seen as a poisoned chalice because the Trust itself, discredited by the Jimmy Savile and executive payoff scandals, may be scrapped before Ms Fairhead’s four-year term is over.
Advertisement
The government blundered by trumpeting Lord Coe as their preferred choice for the role, and even amended the job specifications to accommodate his workload, even though it was well known that the former Olympic gold medallist’s ambition was for a senior role in athletics. They were embarrassed when Lord Coe, after mulling the idea for weeks, ruled himself out.