Helen Boaden began her journalistic career in 1979 with New York radio station WBAI. She joined the BBC in 1983 as a news producer. She later became a reporter and then editor of Radio 4's flagship weekly current affairs programme, File On 4. In 1997 she became head of Business Programmes and a year later head of Current Affairs, the first woman to do the job.

Boaden was appointed controller of Radio 4 in March 2000, and controller of BBC 7 in 2002. She became director of BBC News in September 2004.

Audio

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Length: 20 sec