Elan Closs Stephens is Emeritus Professor of Communications and Creative Industries at Aberystwyth University. During her time at Aberystwyth, she taught and supported numerous young people who have since had distinguished careers as writers, actors , directors and programme commissioners. She has specialised in cultural and broadcasting regulatory policy, chairing the Stephens Review into the Welsh Arts Council and serving as Chair of the British Council in Wales, as a Governor of the British Film Institute and, for two terms, as Chair of S4C, the Welsh Fourth Channel. For the last six years until the end of the Charter, she has been the Wales Trustee on the BBC’s governing body, the BBC Trust. She is a Non Executive Director of the Permanent Secretary of Wales’s senior Board and has chaired the Board’s Audit and Risk Committee since 2008. She also chaired the Recovery Board for the Isle of Anglesey County Council. Currently she has received the Royal Warrant to act as Electoral Commissioner for Wales from April 2017.
Elan is a first language Welsh speaker from the Nantlle Valley in N Wales and a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2001 for services to broadcasting and the Welsh language.
Appointments to the Board of S4C are made by the Secretary of State. Authority Members of S4C are remunerated at a rate of £9,650 per annum.
This appointment has been made by exception under the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Elan Closs Stephens was appointed to the Board of S4C as the BBC Trust Member for Wales in 2012. Her term was due to expire on 31 October 2018. The BBC Trust ceased to exist on 2 April 2017, ending her term of office on that date. The Secretary of State wishes for her to continue to sit on the Board until the date that her original appointment was due to finish.
In accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Elan Closs Stephens has declared no such political activity.
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