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BBC looks to life after Thompson

The BBC’s governing body has called in headhunters to explore a succession plan for director general Mark Thompson, amid rumours the UK pubcaster’s chief could step down after the summer Olympics.

The BBC Trust confirmed that Egon Zehnder International had been drafted in to look at the structure of the role and the job description in the event of an executive change, but stressed it wasn’t currently looking for individual candidates for the DG job.

“In line with best practice we have engaged Egon Zehnder International to help us develop the initial stages of a succession plan, but this does not signal any imminent vacancy,” a Trust spokesman told C21.

The news comes after BBC Trust Chairman, Lord Patten, told The Times newspaper that Egon Zehnder had been employed to produce a report on “the sort of people” that could replace Thompson.

“So long as he wishes to remain director general, he will remain so and a very good one,” Patten said.

However he added: “I want us to be able, when the time comes, to have an intelligent view of who are possible successors and where successors should come from, and what sort of job we would want them to be doing.”

Patten also indicated that the BBC will “substantially” cut the wage of the next director general, as it continues its Delivering Quality First (DQF) cost cutting exercise. Thompson, who took over from former director general Gregg Dyke in 2004, currently earns £671,000 per year.

“As the chairman has repeatedly said, Mark Thompson does an excellent job as director general and we hope the post does not become vacant any time soon. Mark Thompson is aware of and supports this exercise,” the Trust spokesman added.

The UK government said last year it was freezing the licence fee until 2017 as part of a renegotiated deal with the BBC, forcing the corporation to target savings of around £670m (US$1bn) a year by 2016/17. Under the DQF plan, the BBC plans to shed around 2,000 jobs

Last week BBC1 controller Danny Cohen said that 2012 was set to be “a huge year” for the channel, “perhaps the biggest in its history” due to the The Olympics, The Diamond Jubilee, and The European Championships.

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