At last the BBC has a new business editor to replace Robert Peston. Step forward Kamal Ahmed, currently business editor of the Sunday Telegraph, who will be confirmed in the job today.
Ahmed and Peston seem to have started a tradition of Telegraph-to-BBC business crossovers — Peston bestrode the Sunday Telegraph as City and associate editor before heading to the BBC in 2005 —and his promotion also continues the takeover of the BBC by newspaper men in general. James Harding, head of BBC news, was formerly Times editor.
The vacancy has been known about for months but Ahmed seems to have stolen a march on other hotly tipped candidates for the job, who included chief business correspondent Linda Yueh and Channel 4’s business correspondent Siobhan Kennedy.
Ahmed has had a wide-ranging and go-ahead career and has often been tipped for top jobs. From being executive news editor at the Observer, he went to be communications director at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, before landing at the Sunday Telegraph four years ago. He’s also been spotted moving more in TV circles, most recently at a drinks party thrown by Sky presenter Jeff Randall last week. Randall may have given him a few tips. He was Peston’s predecessor.
Over at the BBC, Peston has shuffled his chair to the economics editor’s desk, where Stephanie Flanders used to sit before she headed off to JP Morgan.
Ahmed, who is married to prize winning novelist Elizabeth Day and is a friend of Alastair Campbell, was a little lost for words when the Londoner called this morning. “Eerrrrm...,” is what he replied when asked about his new job. One hopes that was only a temporary lack of eloquence.
