Nicholas Kroll is the Director of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. He is the principal adviser to the BBC Trust

BBC Trust

The BBC Trust is the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and aims to act in the best interests of licence fee payers....

 and head of the BBC Trust Unit, the BBC department that supports and advises the Trust.

BBC

Kroll was originally appointed Director of Governance at the BBC in October 2004. His appointment followed a shake up of the governance arrangements at the BBC implemented by the then BBC Chairman, Michael Grade

Michael Grade

Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...

. Kroll was appointed to lead the Governance Unit, a small team of staff reporting to and supporting the Board of Governors of the BBC

Board of Governors of the BBC

The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replaced by the BBC Trust on 1 January 2007.The governors...

.

Upon the formation of the BBC Trust as the governing body of the Corporation, Kroll was appointed Director. He is the head of the Trust Unit a group of 60 BBC staff that report directly to the BBC Trust, outside of the BBC management chain. In 2009/10 the cost of the Trust Unit was £10.5 million.

Previous career

Prior to working at the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, Nicholas Kroll was a career civil servant.

From 2002 - 2004 he was Chief Operating Officer and deputy to the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the whole UK, such as broadcasting and internet....

, responsible for developing and delivering the Department's change management programme and setting new strategic priorities within the DCMS. Previous posts at the DCMS include Corporate Services Director (2000 to 2002) and a period as acting Permanent Secretary during 2001. He was also Director of Creative Industries, Media and Broadcasting Group (1996 to 2000), Head of Broadcasting Policy Division (1995 to 1996), and Head of the Arts Division (1993 to 1995).

Kroll also worked at HM Treasury

HM Treasury

HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...

 where he was Head of the European Community Budget Division (1990 to 1993) and the Head of Banking Policy Branch (1986 to 1990). Previously, he worked at the Department of Transport

Department for Transport

In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...

 (1982 to 1986) and the Department of Environment and Transport (1977 to 1982).

Personal

Kroll is a graduate of Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom...

. He is married with two children.