Greg Dyke (born 1947) attended York University, and was briefly a journalist before joining London Weekend Television (LWT) for what became a career in broadcasting. After a break, he returned to LWT in 1987, rising to become Group Chief Executive of LWT (Holdings) plc in 1991-94.

In 1995, Dyke joined Pearson Television as chief executive. He also guided the consortium which created Channel 5 and became its first chairman. He became Director-General of the BBC in January 2000, and left it in January 2004; subsequently, he was named chancellor of the University of York.

He has served as chairman of the Independent Television Association(1992-94); chairman of GMTV (1993-94); and at various times as a director of Pearson plc, Channel Four Television, ITN and BSkyB. He was a non-Executive Director of Manchester United Football Club (1997-99), and a Trustee of the Science Museum since 1996. He became a Fellow of the Royal Television Society in 1998 and a Fellow of the National Film and Television School in 2002.