The BBC has drawn up a shortlist of four to replace Director General Lord Hall and will hold interviews in early June, according to the Guardian.
The shortlist is said to comprise Will Lewis, the outgoing chief executive of the publisher of the Wall Street Journal; two of the BBC’s most senior executives, Tim Davie and Charlotte Moore; and one other female candidate.
The BBC approached Alex Mahon, the chief executive of Channel 4, about the role, but she is understood to have declined to put her name forward.
Davie continues to be seen as the frontrunner for the role. He ran the BBC’s audio and music operation and acted as Director General during the Savile crisis and is currently the chief executive of BBC Studios. Moore is the BBC’s Director of Content and manages a £1bn budget.
Lewis finished a six-year stint at Dow Jones on Friday and has worked at the Financial Times, Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph, where he became the youngest editor-in-chief and oversaw the newspaper’s investigation into MPs’ expenses.
The recruitment process is being led by David Clementi, the chair of the BBC board, who comes to the end of his four-year tenure early next year. The BBC declined to comment on the recruitment process.
