BBC Acting Chair Says Staff & Board Were “Unnerved” Over Richard Sharp Loan Scandal

The BBC‘s Acting Chair Elan Closs Stephens has said staff and the board at the UK network were “unnerved” by events of the past few months.

Cross’ predecessor, Richard Sharp, stood down after a report found he had breached appointment rules by failing to properly declare his role in securing former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson access to an £800,000 ($1M) loan.

A BBC probe cleared Sharp of any conflict of interest issues but noted he should have made “relevant declarations at the outset of his tenure” that he had attempted to introduce a Canadian businessman, Sam Blyth, to the UK’s Cabinet Secretary. Blyth went on help Johnson secure the loan.

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“There’s no doubt that we’ve gone through a difficult period of time and I’m sure that staff and the Board and Richard himself were unnerved by what happened over the past few months,” said Closs Stephens today as she began her new role.

Closs Stephens praised Sharp’s commitment to the BBC during his two-year stint as Chair and said the “all of us feel a debt of gratitude” to him.

However, she added: “We need to re-establish the confidence and the ambition in that output and to know that the Board is fully behind the creativity of the organisation.”

Questioned by BBC presenter Tina Daheley, Closs Stephens said her initial take was “there is an awful lot to be done.”

“But I’m really confident that we are very good as an organisation at rising to challenges, reinventing ourselves and seeing things through, and so I’ve got every confidence in us as an organisation, but it will require energy and pace and I hope to bring that, not just personally but as a Board.”

Closs Stephens declined to put a timeline on appointing a full-time Chair but said the board was “firmly of the opinion that the guidelines should be followed, that there should be head-hunters, there should be as wide a search as possible, it should be as diverse a field as possible and that there should be some really very strong candidates from all walks of life if we can, with the necessary experience to take on this role.”

The likes of Baroness Stowell of Beeston, BBC board member Damon Buffini and Nicholas Serota have all been linked to the role.