BBC poaches organic chief for Website

Sue Farr, the BBC’s most senior marketer, has lured a head of marketing for BBC Online from the Prince of Wales’ organic food business.

Tim Ledgard, managing director of Duchy Originals, takes on responsibility for the development and execution of a marketing strategy for BBC Online – the most visited Website in Europe. He will report to Farr.

Ledgard has spent the past year-and-a-half at Duchy Originals, a business created by Prince Charles in 1990 to promote organic agriculture and raise funds for charity.

He replaces BBC Online’s first head of marketing Dominic Riley. He left to become managing director of handbag.com, the Internet site aimed at women owned jointly by Boots and Hollinger, publisher of the Telegraph. Andrew Warner, BBC Online’s marketing manager and subsequent acting head, left to join Emap Online last month.

Ledgard previously worked at Mars on both petfood and confectionery brands with spells in Germany, the UK and finally China where he was marketing director.

He says: “Having worked in different places and on different products in a competitive, fast-moving environment I have skills that are transferable into media.”