The BFI announces four new Governors and Governor Election result

Four new Governors have been appointed to the BFI Board and will take up their positions from 1 January 2009.

Sir Christopher Frayling
Matthew Freud
Ashley Highfield
David Thompson - elected Governor

Following the last Board meeting on 11 November, Tim Angel, Lizzie Francke (elected Governor), Stephen Frears and Roger Laughton all stood down, having completed their terms as Governors.

Sir Christopher Frayling is Rector of the Royal College of Art and Chair of Arts Council England. He has been a BFI Governor before and this will be his second three-year term.

Matthew Freud is Chairman of Freud Communications, one of the UK's leading PR practitioners.

Ashley Highfield is a leading expert on new media, having spent a number of years at the BBC as Director of the Future Media and Technology group, and is now Managing Director and VP of the UK Consumer & Online operation at Microsoft

The fourth appointment is David Thompson who won the recent Governor election. David is a freelance film director and writer, having spent a number of years in the BBC Arts Department working on Omnibus and Arena. He has also spent time as a freelance journalist and reviewer. David wrote the BFI Modern Classic Last Tango in Paris.

Governor Election

The Governor election was managed by Electoral Reform Services on behalf of the BFI and 1,580 votes were cast as follows:

David Thompson - 554 votes
Daniel Cormack - 500 votes
Cy Young - 342 votes
Pippa Jones - 184 votes

David Thompson's appointment has been confirmed by the BFI’s Board of Governors and was ratified at the UK Film Council Board meeting in November.