John Smith (BBC executive)

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John Smith (b. August 1957) is the BBC Worldwide's Chief Executive Officer since June 2004.

He attended the Shelton Lock school (which became Merrill College) in Derby. He later went to the Harvard Business School. He worked for British Rail Engineering Limited, Sealink, Seaspeed Hovercraft, and other companies owned by the BR Group.

He joined the BBC in 1989, becoming the BBC's Finance Director in 1996. In April 2000, he became Director of Finance, Property & Business Affairs, adding Property, Procurement and Programme Rights to his portfolio.

In June 2004, he became the BBC's Chief Operating Officer.

He undertook the recent Commercial Review of all the BBC's commercial activities and was responsible in 2004 for the sale of BBC Technology to Siemens Business Services, and in 2005, he led the sale of BBC Broadcast to Creative Broadcast Services Limited, a Macquarie Company. This company became Red Bee Media.

In July 2004, John Smith took the helm at BBC Worldwide and was confirmed as CEO in March 2005.

He is a member of the BBC's Executive Board. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). He was a Council Member between 1996-9 and became a vice-president of the Royal Television Society (RTS) in January 2006. He is a non-executive director of Severn Trent plc, and is Chairman of their Audit Committee. He won the Accountancy Age Financial Director of the Year Award in 2001. He is a Member of the Accounting Standards Board, and the HM Treasury Public Services Productivity Panel. In 2004, he received an honorary Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects (in the same year as John Prescott).