Sara Nathan (broadcaster)


Sara Catherine Nathan is a former British broadcaster who now sits on the boards of a number of public bodies.

Early life and education

She was educated at Wimbledon High School, Cambridge University and Stanford University which she attended on a Harkness Fellowship. Her college at Cambridge was New Hall and she was vice-president of Cambridge Union.

Career

Broadcasting

Nathan was a BBC journalist for 15 years on Newsnight, Breakfast Time and The Money Programme. She was on the launch team for Radio 5 Live and was the first editor of its morning programme. After that she became Britain's first female editor of a TV network news programme when she became editor of Channel 4 News in 1995, a post she held until 1997.
She was a member of the Radio Authority from 1999 to 2003, a founder board member of Ofcom, where her term ended at the end of 2007, and was an Editorial Adviser to the BBC Trust from January 2008 until its abolition in 2016. She has also served on the board of ATVOD, the regulatory agency designated by Ofcom as the "co-regulator" of television on demand. Sara was a Senior Hearings Manager in BBC HR - mostly working on Equal Pay - from November 2018 - August 2019.

Other roles

She was a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and of the Professional Conduct Committee of the Bar Council. She was a Commissioner for the Marshall Scholarships until December 2006. She was on the Regulatory Decision Committee of the Financial Services Authority from 2001 to 2007, and was a member of the ICSTIS PhonepayPlus Committee until November 2008. She chaired The Animal Procedures Committee, a body that advises the British Home Secretary on matters related to animal experimentation in the UK, until its abolition in 2012. She was a lay member of the Judicial Appointments Commission from January 2006 to January 2012.
Since April 2012 she has been a Public Appointments Assessor, chairing the appointment of Chairs of public bodies, reporting to David Normington, the First Civil Service Commissioner, and a Chair of disciplinary hearings for the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Sara Nathan was appointed to the board of the Solicitors' Regulation Authority in January 2010. She was a trustee of Why Me?, a charity promoting Restorative Justice.
Sara co-founded a charity Refugees At Home, which finds hosts for destitute asylum-seekers and refugees, in 2015. She has since hosted 19 refugees from many countries including Syria, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Afghanistan and Egypt. The charity has made over 1700 placements and hosted for over 140,000 individual person nights.
She is a tribunal chair for the Nursing & Midwifery Council until April 2020.

Honours

She was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours, announced on 14 June 2008.

Personal life

She lives in Acton, London, with her husband, the composer and now-retired director of music at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Malcolm Singer. They have two adult children. And a grandson.