BBC’S NEW DIRECTOR-GENERAL IS A LOCAL
The new Director- General of the BBC, Matt Brittin lives locally and was a pupil at Hampton School, Teddington Town can reveal.
The former Google president, aged 57, and father of two grown-up sons, takes over on May 18th following Tim Davie, who was DG for six years and resigned after the controversy over the Trump Panorama programme.
Matt, who is 6ft 3ins, rowed in The Boat Race three times, from 1987 to 1989, representing Cambridge University. He rowed for Great Britain from 1985 to 1989, winning a bronze medal at the World Rowing Championships in 1989.
Amongst his favourite TV shows he has listed Morecambe And Wise, Not The Nine O’Clock News, Thunderbirds and Doctor Who.
Born in Walton-on-Thames, Brittin won a scholarship to Hampton School before studying at Cambridge, where he read Land Economy and Geography.
He was the first one in his family to go to university and went on to complete an MBA in business at London Business School.
His first job was as a chartered surveyor at Connell Wilson plc, where he says he would use a tape measure to calculate the floor areas of buildings, before negotiating business deals to sell and lease the space.
He then became a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he says he “drew lots of charts”, before moving into media, where he worked for Trinity Mirror plc, one of the UK’s largest newspaper publishers, and owners of the Daily Mirror, Daily Express and Daily Star.
First working as a commercial director, he was later promoted to director of strategy.
From there, he swiftly moved on to Google, where he worked for over 18 years, the last 10 of which he was president, EMEA, leading the company’s Europe, Middle East and African interests.
In his linkedin business profile he describes himself as ‘tall, energetic, British. Above average at sitting down sports. Latterly President of Google EMEA.”
He was awarded the CBE in the UK honours list for ‘services to technology and enhancing digital skills.”
Matt also calls himself a “gap year student,” referring to the “mini-gap year” he took after stepping down from global tech corporation Google last year, a “part-time athlete” and a proponent for “tech for good”, hinting at his hopes to “harness the huge potential of AI for good in an ever more turbulent world”