The BBC Group has appointed Bérangère Michel as its Group Chief Financial Officer.
Michel previously spent 16 years at the John Lewis Partnership, where she held roles including Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Customer Service Executive Director, Operations Director, and Finance and Strategy Director.
Before joining the John Lewis Partnership, Michel spent 11 years at the Royal Mail Group in a number of finance, change and strategy roles, including as Finance Director of the property division.
Michel will be responsible for the overall BBC Group financial strategy, with a remit across BBC Public Service, BBC Studios, and the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries. She will play a leadership role and will sit on both the Executive Committee and – for the first time – the board.
The BBC said her position will strengthen its financial leadership, support its transformation, and make the best use of the licence fee and commercial opportunities.
When she takes up the role in early January 2025, Michel will report to the BBC’s Director-General. Currently, this is Tim Davie. However, as he tendered his resignation in November 2025, the BBC is now in the process of appointing his successor before the next Royal Charter. In the interim, Davie will continue to work in his previous capacity.
Davie commented: “Bérangère brings a wealth of experience from her time at the John Lewis Partnership and will play a critical role in shaping our new financial strategy. I’m pleased to welcome her to the BBC and to both the executive committee and board.
“Bérangère’s appointment to this expanded role comes at an important time for the BBC, as we look ahead to charter renewal and continue to accelerate our transformation to deliver outstanding value for our audiences.”
Samir Shah, Chair of the BBC, added: “The role of Group CFO will be hugely important as we build a BBC for the future, and I look forward to welcoming Bérangère to the board.”
Shumeet Banerji recently resigned from the BBC board and criticised governance issues at the corporation. Discover more here.
Netflix leadership lays out case for Warner Bros Discovery deal
Netflix Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos have stressed their belief that the streamer’s planned $83bn acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery will go ahead, despite a hostile bid from Paramount Skydance.
UK facilities Halo Post and Evolutions placed into administration
Just months after being acquired by leading UK post-production company Envy, post houses Halo Post Production and Evolutions have been placed into administration.
UK government names Creative Industries Council members
The UK government has named the new members of its Creative Industries Council (CIC), its strategic forum for collaboration with industry leaders.
Disney strikes $1bn investment deal with OpenAI
The Walt Disney Company has agreed to invest $1bn in OpenAI, enabling users to make videos with its copyrighted characters on the video generation app, Sora.
SMPTE, EBU, and ETC research AI’s impact on the media
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has teamed up with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) on a new engineering report on artificial intelligence (AI) and its effect on media.
