Bob Shennan


Robert Duncan James "Bob" Shennan is a British media executive and current group managing director of the BBC. He was appointed to the role in March 2019 having previously held the positions of director, BBC Radio and Music and controller of BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music.

Early life

He was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Career

Shennan has been a senior executive in radio and television for a number of years. He started as a journalist at Hereward Radio in Peterborough from 1984–7. He joined BBC Sport in 1987 as a trainee radio sport producer and was part of the team that founded BBC Radio Five Live. After working as head of BBC Sport where he had overall responsibility for sports coverage on BBC radio and television, he was appointed head of BBC Radio 5 Live in 2000. As the network's controller he oversaw the launch of BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra in 2002, and also took over as controller of the BBC Asian Network in 2004. Shennan took over as director, BBC Radio and Music, in October 2016, and became group managing director of the BBC in 2019.

BBC Radio 2

Shennan took over the position of station controller in February 2009 from Lesley Douglas, who resigned in October 2008 following The Russell Brand Show prank calls row.
He is also a fellow of the Radio Academy.