BBC Worldwide deputy CFO goes permanent

BBC Worldwide acting CFO Philip Vincent has been appointed to the CFO role and to the board at the BBC’s lucrative commercial arm.

Vincent takes charge of Worldwide’s finance team and developing its financial strategy against its four strategic priorities – growth outside the UK, growing digital revenues, “making more of our own content, and developing more direct connections with consumers”.

Vincent was made acting CFO this June after 12 years with the business in roles including deputy CFO for Worldwide, group finance director for broadcast and digital, CFO for global channels, and head of corporate finance. He joined the division as a financial planning manager from a role as financial controller for a division of chemical group Bunzl.

Vincent took over from Neil Chugani, who left the BBC to become CFO at Shine, the independent production company whose founder and CEO is Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elizabeth. Vincent had been made Worldwide’s deputy CFO only a few months before that.

The CFO welcomed his appointment as allowing him to “play a major role in propelling the business forward”. The role is effective immediately.

In 2009-10, BBC Worldwide reported a healthy profit increase of 36.5 percent to £145m. The business escaped the threat of being sold off and asset stripped amid the government’s search for quangos to be sold off.