Appointment as Director of BBC Scotland

Ken MacQuarrie became Director of BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...

 in April 2009. He is the highest paid employee of BBC Scotland earning between £190,000 and £220,000 per annum.

He had been Controller since April 2004 and Head of Programmes from 2000 when he had responsibility for production and commissioning of all BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 output broadcast in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 on television, radio and online.

Broadcasting career

He worked as a radio producer for BBC Highland before transferring to television in 1979, where he worked as a producer in Glasgow.
During this period Ken MacQuarrie introduced daily Gaelic children's programmes on television, developed the investigative current affairs programme Prosbaig and launched the award-winning series Eorpa

Eòrpa

is long-running current affairs programme broadcast on BBC Two Scotland and BBC Alba. The series has been running since 1993, and has covered political and social issues affecting Europe and Europeans over that time including issues affecting the Western Isles. It is broadcast weekly in Scottish...

 and De a-Nis?
In 1992 he became both Head of Gaelic and Features and of Children's, complementing the output in Gaelic

Gaelic

Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels", including language and culture. As a noun, it may refer to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually.-Gaelic languages:...

 with English language factual programmes and also setting up a children's production base for the UK networks which is now the largest production base for children's television outside London.
Four years later he was appointed Head of Broadcast and in 2000 became Head of Programmes.
Among the major projects he has overseen in that role are In Search Of Scotland, Chewin' The Fat, Still Game, Gruth Is Uachdar (Crowdie And Cream) and Scotland's Empire on television and, on Radio Scotland, Gracenotes, Off The Ball and Lesley Riddoch.

Education

A native of Mull and a Gaelic speaker, he was educated at Oban, Edinburgh University and Moray House College of Education before joining BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...

 as a researcher in 1975.

Outside interests

Ken MacQuarrie is a former board member of the Scottish Film Council and the Celtic Film and Television Association.
He is Chair of the Skillset Scottish National Board and Vice-President of the Royal Television Society.

Personal life

He is married with three children and among his many interests are sailing, reading and walking.

External links

• BBC Scotland Management (BBC Scotland – eight top executives)
• BBC Scotland Ken MacQuarrie biog (BBC)