Tony Hall (arts manager)

Tony Hall CBE (born 3 March 1951 in Birkenhead, Cheshire) has been chief executive of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden since 2001. He was educated at Birkenhead School and Keble College, Oxford, where he studied PPE. He joined the BBC as a trainee after graduating. He was awarded a CBE in 2005, and is married with two children.

BBC career

Among his career achievements are the launch of BBC Parliament, Radio 5 Live and the editing of the "9 O' Clock News" at the early age of 34. He was previously director of News and Current Affairs Television at the BBC (1990-1993) and, combining TV and radio, became director of News for the BBC in 1993. In 1999 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the position of Director General of the BBC. Shortly afterwards he became Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House in April 2001.

Royal Opera House career

After joining the Royal Opera House Tony Hall set up ROH2, as a department devoted to supporting new artists and developing new audiences. Since then, Tony has set up new initiatives to widen access to the Opera House - including big screen relays to locations across the UK, Paul Hamlyn matinees, and other low-price ticket schemes.

External Posts

In April 2004 Tony was appointed the inaugural Chair of the industry-led sector skills council, Creative & Cultural Skills, [http://www.ccskills.org.uk] . The sector skills council has introduced the first formal creative apprenticeships; has won government approval to build a state-of-the-art National Skills Academy for backstage skills [http://www.ccskills.org.uk/nsa] located with the Royal Opera House production park in Thurrock, Thames Gateway; and recently launched a web 2.0 careers portal called Creative Choices: [http://www.creative-choices.co.uk]

Tony also chairs the Music and Dance Scheme Advisory Board, and led a Dance Review for the DFES resulting in an additional £5 million awarded for dance education. He is a member of the Management Committee of the Clore Leadership Programme, and a non-executive Director of Channel 4 Television. He is also on the Culture and Creative Advisory Forum panel for the DCMS and at present he is Chair of the Theatre Royal, Stratford East.

He has been an Honorary Visiting Fellow of Journalism at City University, a member of the Regeneration Through Heritage Steering Group, a board member for Race for Opportunity, a board member for Learndirect, and was a member of the Council for Brunel University.

Until May 2000 he was Chair of the Royal Television Society.

2007 MOD media report

In April 2007 in the wake of the 2007 Iranian seizure of Royal Navy personnel, Tony Hall was asked to inquire into the MOD's media strategy.

Bibliography

He wrote a book, "King Coal", about miners in Britain (1981) and another, "Nuclear Power", in 1987.

References

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/344432.stm Brief 1999 internal BBC bio]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/4264327.stm 2005 recorded BBC interview "...bringing opera to the people?"]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/pm/specials/nigel_wrench_interviews/1755256.stm 2002 recorded BBC interview with regards toROH and public funding]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1255686.stm 2001 article on taking the ROH job]