VETERAN TV executive Samir Shah is set to be appointed new BBC chairman, according to reports.
The role was vacated earlier this year by former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp, who resigned after failing to declare his connection to an £800,000 loan made to Boris Johnson.
He has since been replaced by acting BBC chairwoman Dame Elan Closs Stephens.
Shah is currently chief executive of award-winning production company Juniper TV, which makes a number of political and current affairs programmes.
He was previously the BBC’s head of television current affairs, and later ran the BBC’s political journalism department at Millbank.
The appointment, which is made by the Government, is expected to be announced as early as Wednesday afternoon, according to the Financial Times.
Shah was an executive on the controversial report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which concluded that the “claim the country is still institutionally racist is not borne out by the evidence”.
Shah has also criticised “woke warriors” in an article discussing the cultural appropriation of food.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has been contacted for comment.
