James Boyle - Chair, British Council Scotland Committee
Before joining the BBC in 1975 as an adult education officer, James worked for four years as a lecturer in Glasgow Caledonian University. His senior posts held at BBC include Head of BBC Radio Scotland and Chief Advisor, Editorial Policy.
With Radio Scotland he won the Sony title UK Station of the Year for the network. As Controller BBC Radio 4, he reformed the network producing with his team an entirely new schedule. The new programmes subsequently won a record 6 gold Sony awards in one year and eight other silver and bronze awards. His public service posts include Chair of the Scottish Arts Council, Chair of the Scottish Cultural Commission, founder and first Chair of Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature and founder of Glasgow UNESCO City of Music. The current UNESCO global network of creative cities began with Edinburgh. James was a UK Civil Service Commissioner between 2001 and 2005 and again in 2007-2008.
James has also held several non-executive directorships in the media private sector, including a current interest in Franklin Rae Communications and Anareva, the boutique search consultancy. He is a member of Court at Edinburgh Napier University and Chair of the British Council Advisory Committee in Scotland. He has honorary doctorates from Aberdeen Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier Universities. James is married to Marie and has three sons and three grandsons.
