Greg Dyke
EMMA Supporter
Greg Dyke is a British Media icon, broadcaster and journalist who is remembered for his tenure as the Director General of the BBC from 2000 to 2004. It was during this period that he made many changes within the BBC which resonated with the EMMA initiative to promote social cohesion within society and the creative industries. He supported EMMA being broadcasted on the BBC, because the Creative Industry is the most powerful industry, defining British culture.
Born in Hayes, Middlesex, his father was an insurance salesman. Greg was educated at Yeading Primary School and then Hayes Grammar School, where he left with one grade “E” at A-level mathematics. After school, he briefly worked as a trainee manager at Marks & Spencer before going on to work as a trainee reporter for the Hillingdon Mirror and becoming chief reporter in eight months.
Greg left the Mirror after attempting to stage a union-backed protest against the junior staff’s poor pay conditions. Afterwards, he got a job at the Slough Evening Mail, and among his colleagues at the time was future music journalist Colin Irwin.
With an early career as a journalist, Greg started his broadcasting career at London Weekend Television. This led to him being given the chance to launch a new early evening current affairs topical news programme, which became The Six O’Clock Show, fronted by Michael Aspel, with co-hosts Danny Baker and Janet Street-Porter.
Greg then became Editor-in-Chief of the breakfast station TV-am. He was instrumental in reviving the station’s breakfast shows by introducing a new schedule based around popular features, including bingo, celebrity gossip, and horoscopes.
In the 1990s, he was the Director of Programmes at Television South and the Group Chief Executive at LWT plc before Granada took over LWT.
In 1994, he joined Pearson Television as Chief Executive before guiding the group that created Channel 5 and becoming its first Chairman.
Greg was made director-general of the BBC from January 2000 to January 2004. During his time there, he launched the Freeview digital television platform, hastening the transition from analogue to digital, and injected a fresh style of management that engaged staff.
Greg was also Chancellor of the University of York from 2004 to 2015 and Chairman of the British Film Institute between 2008 and 2016.
As of now, Greg is currently Chairman of the children’s television company HiT Entertainment, the British Film Institute (BFI), London Film School and Ambassador Theatres Group, and the Vice President for Television of BAFTA.
Greg has been a panellist on Sky News’s The Pledge. He has demonstrated a commitment to cultural diversity, both in staff and output, and his direct, down-to-earth management style has been widely praised for reinvigorating the BBC’s morale and creativity.
