Dame Elizabeth "Liz" Anne Lucy Forgan, DBE (born 31 August 1944) is an English journalist and executive for radio and television.
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Early life
Forgan was educated at the independent Benenden School in Kent, a girls's boarding school, and at St Hugh's College, Oxford, then an all-female college.
She initially worked on newspapers starting with Teheran Journal as Arts Editor 1967-68, at the Hampstead and Highgate Express (1969-74), and on London's Evening Standard (1974-78, and later as a columnist 1997-98).
She was editor of The Guardian's women's pages from 1978 to 1982, a Guardian columnist during 1997 and 1998, becoming a non-executive director of the Guardian Media Group[1] from 1998.
Media management
Forgan was a founding commissioning editor and then Director of Programmes at the UK's Channel 4 from 1981 to 1990.[2]
She joined the BBC in 1993 to become Managing Director, BBC Network Radio where she developed the format for BBC Radio Five Live and launched the DAB digital radio service.
She left the BBC in February 1996 over a disagreement with John Birt, then BBC Director General, over the decision to move BBC Radio News from Broadcasting House to Television Centre.[3]
Forgan was appointed the sixth Chair of The Scott Trust in 2003[4], the owner of the Guardian newspapers hence becoming Britain's first female newspaper proprietor.
Public organisations
Since April 2001, the Chair of the National Heritage Memorial Fund since 2001 and Heritage Lottery Fund[5].
She is also board member of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama[6], Trustee of the Royal Anniversary Trust, a former Board Member of the British Film Institute, a Trustee of the Media Trust and of the Phoenix Trust, and Chair of the Churches Conservation Trust.
From February 2009 Forgan will be the new Chair of Arts Council England, becoming the first woman to be head of the leading British Arts organisation in its 62-year history. Forgan will replace Sir Christopher Frayling.[7][8]
Personal life
Liz Forgan was awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Radio Broadcasting in 2006 and previously awarded the OBE in 1998 also for services to Radio Broadcasting.
She is also the patron of the St. Giles Trust. She lives in Primrose Hill. She is in a relationship with Rex Cowan.
See also
- Jill Tweedie for details of the National Portrait Gallery Group portrait of Forgan, Tweedie, Polly Toynbee and Mary Stott (editors of Guardian's Women's Page) and Posy Simmonds
References
- ^ "Scott Trust Appoints New Chair". http://www.gmgplc.co.uk/gmgplc/media/news/article/article40.html. Retrieved 2007-01-28.
- ^ "Liz Forgan - Heritage Lottery Fund". http://www.hlf.org.uk/English/AboutUs/Decision-makersandmanagers/Trustees/LizForgan.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-28.
- ^ "News move was last straw for Liz Forgan" by Michael Leapman, The Independent, February 25, 1996. Retrieved on January 28, 2007.
- ^ History of the Scott Trust
- ^ "Dame Liz re-appointed to the National Heritage Memorial Fund". http://www.tendowningstreet.gov.uk/output/Page10195.asp. Retrieved 2007-01-28.
- ^ "Hidden Treasures Speakers". http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/HiddenTreasures/speakers.html. Retrieved 2007-01-28.
- ^ The Guardian 15 December 2008
- ^ [1] Department for Culture, Media and Sport Media Release 16 December 2008
External links
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