Gail Rebuck is the dark horse to chair BBC Trust

 
Gail Rebuck. Photo:Rebecca Reid
18 July 2013

Adam Crozier may be one of the favourites to replace Lord Patten as BBC Trust chairman in 2015 but Dame Gail Rebuck’s name has now entered the frame as a dark horse. Paddy Power is offerings odds on her of 10/1. “She is a real class act and I can see her taking on Channel 4 or the BBC or a portfolio of jobs,” said ex-HarperCollins chief executive officer Vicky Barnsley of Rebuck in an interview a couple of years ago.

Rebuck, former CEO of Random House, was in the running to become vice-chairman of the BBC in 1998 during Tony Blair’s first term but instead lost out to Lady (Barbara) Young, amid accusations that her appointment would have been an act of political “cronyism”. Rebuck’s late husband Philip Gould was then a key Blair adviser.

Government insiders insisted at the time that Rebuck had dropped out because she did not feel she would have enough time to do the job properly. She stepped down as CEO of newly merged Penguin Random House earlier this month to become its full-time chairman.

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