Topic: Jana Bennett

Jana Bennett OBE (born 1956) is Director of Vision at the BBC. She took up the post in 2006, having been Director of Television from April 2002. She was previously Executive Vice President and General Manager at Discovery Communications in the US. As Director of BBC Vision, she “heads the largest multi-media production, commissioning and broadcast group of its kind in the world,” , with overall responsibility for BBC Television and its online services, BBC Films and BBC Productions. In her two most recent roles at the BBC, Jana Bennett “steered the BBC TV portfolio through its transition into the mainstream digital age.”

Bennett is also a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and a Comic Relief Trustee.

Born in Cooperstown, New York State, USA, Bennett moved to Britain in 1969, where she was educated at Bognor Regis Comprehensive School, then studied politics, philosophy and economics at St Anne’s College, Oxford. She undertook post-graduate studies at the London School of Economics where she was awarded an MSc (Dist) for her work on strategic analysis and international and defence studies.