Marinella Soldi leaves the Rai presidency for a new job at the BBC

The president of RAI, Marinella Soldi , in a letter addressed to the Minister of the Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti , has announced her desire to resign from her role as of 10 August 2024. President Soldi's decision, linked to personal and professional reasons,' a Viale Mazzini note explained, 'has been communicated to top management and will be formalised at the board meeting scheduled for next week.

Soldi has been appointed as a non-executive director to the Bbc Commercial Board from 1 September 2024, after joining the Group's main Board in September 2023. Bbc Commercial's directors are appointed by the Bbc Board on the recommendation of the Appointments Committee, which includes Dr Samir Shah, Chairman of the Bbc, and Sir Damon Buffini, Chairman of the Bbc Commercial Board. Bbc Commercial is a subsidiary of the BBC. The Bbc Commercial board oversees the Group's commercial activities and the delivery of Bbc Studios' objectives, in line with the Bbc's overall commercial strategy. Bbc Commercial has a board of eight members with a majority non-executive and a maximum of three executive.

Together with Damon Buffini, Marinella Soldi will be the second non-executive member to serve on both the main board of the BBC and Bbc Commercial, strengthening the link between the ambitions of the entire BBC and its commercial subsidiaries. Soldi has long experience in the media sector in both the UK and Italy and is currently at the end of his term as chairman of the board of RAI. For Samir Shah, chairman of the BBC, 'Marinella has significant global experience and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by public services. Her further contribution will be invaluable." "I look forward to working with Marinella in our unique position on both boards," added Damon Buffini, Chairman of the Commercial Board and Vice-Chairman of the Bbc. "This is a critical and exciting time for Bbc Commercial, which must continue to deliver a satisfactory performance for the Group through an ambitious growth strategy."

At this point, the functions of chairman will be performed by the most senior director. Which in this case is CEO Roberto Sergio . On Tuesday the board meeting will be held with Soldi still as chairman, but from 10 August, the date of the next board meeting before the summer holidays, the role of chairman will in fact pass to CEO Sergio. This makes the need to speed up the change of the board even more cogent. The nomination of the four members by the Chamber and Senate is proving to be more tortuous than expected and, as far as emerges, agreement between the majority parties, with the League particularly active on the point, has still not been found. The absence of a president could in one respect speed up the transition.