First Woman Director of BBC news
April 2011, BBC White City, London
b. 1956, Colchester
Helen Boaden spent 34 years at the BBC, starting as reporter on local radio and ending up on the executive board. She was the first woman editor of Radio 4’s investigative programme, File on 4, and the BBC’s first female Head of Current Affairs. Helen became the BBC’s first female Director of News in 2004 at the age of 48, leading 8000 staff at home and abroad.