NEWS > 2006
20 June 2006

Gaelic Media Service Appoints Chief Executive

Donald Campbell, currently Tax Director with Ernst & Young, one of the world’s leading professional services organisations, has been appointed as Chief Executive of the Gaelic Media Service. He has been a non-executive Board Member of the GMS since February 2005 and is relinquishing that appointment prior to taking up his new executive role at the end of the summer this year.

Announcing the new appointment, Gaelic Media Service Chairman Neil Fraser said: “To get someone of the calibre of Mr. Campbell in this position at the crucial juncture when a Gaelic digital media service is imminent is a very satisfactory outcome of the search for a first-rate candidate. Mr. Campbell has impressive credentials: an excellent record of academic achievement; fluency in Gaelic and proficiency in other European languages; proven financial acumen in business and commercial transactions; expertise in the creation of legal entities and joint ventures in both the public and the private sectors; experience in managing and mentoring staff; and knowledge of decision-making in public bodies.”

Mr. Campbell, a native of South Uist, graduated from Rome’s Gregorian University with distinction in Canon Law, Theology and Philosophy. Subsequently he gained professional qualifications in finance and taxation.

Following graduation in 1989 he returned to Scotland and spent two years as a parish priest in the RC Diocese of Argyll and the Isles before embarking on his financial career, first as a consultant with Guardian Royal Exchange and then as an Inspector of Taxes with Inland Revenue in the Southeast of England. In 1997 he returned again to Scotland to join Ernst & Young as a Senior Tax Consultant and rose swiftly through the grades to Senior Tax Manager and ultimately Director, providing advice to some of the company’s most prestigious clients.

In addition to his role as a Board Member of the Gaelic Media Service he served on the Service’s Audit and Assurance Committee and Development Committee. He was also a member of the team working with the BBC to create a partnership arrangement for the establishment of a dedicated digital Gaelic TV channel.

Mr. Campbell is looking forward to his new post. “The challenge must not be underestimated,” he said. “The funding and logistics for the new digital service are still to be finalised. Our primary obligation is to the viewers, listeners and users of Gaelic media. To fulfill that commitment we need a creative community which is not only representative of Gaelic heritage and tradition but is also cognisant of the wider contemporary framework of ideas and aspirations. In this creative community there is a special role for dynamic and forward-looking rapport between the Gaelic Media Service, the BBC, the independent producers, Gaelic language and arts organisations, educational institutions at different levels, and the consumers of the products and services.”