Caroline Thomson

Caroline Agnes Morgan Thomson, Lady Liddle (born 15 May 1954)^[1] is a former BBC executive. She was the Corporation's chief operating officer, from March 2011 to September 2012^[2] and she stood in for Mark Thompson, the former director general, when necessary.^[3]

Thomson is the elder daughter of Labour peer George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth.^[4] She was educated at Mary Datchelor Girls' School in Camberwell, a grammar school,^[5] and graduated from York University, where she read history and economics.^[6]

She first joined the BBC as a journalist trainee in 1975, ultimately becoming a producer on Analysis (Radio 4) and later Panorama (BBC1) before becoming personal assistant to SDP leader Roy Jenkins in 1982. She spent over a decade at Channel 4 from 1984, initially as a commissioning editor, later as Head of Corporate Affairs from 1990, before rejoining the BBC in 1996 as Deputy Director of the World Service.^[7] She became the Corporation's Director of Policy and Legal Affairs in July 2000, a job description later expanded to include Strategy, before being promoted to chief operating officer in 2006. In 2011 she was paid £385,000 by the organisation.^[8] The Commons Public Accounts Committee suggested that her £670,000 redundancy pay-off was effectively paid to "compensate" her for missing out on the job of director-general.^[9]

In October 2013 she became Executive Director of the English National Ballet ^[10][11]

Since November 2012, she has been Chair of Digital UK.^[12] She is also chair of Tomorrow's People Trust's Ambassadors group and Trustee to a number of charities including the National Gallery.^[13]

Caroline Thomson is married to the Labour peer Roger Liddle, an advisor to Tony Blair while Blair was Prime Minister.

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