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Press release issued jointly by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and St Peter's College

Mark Damazer, currently Controller of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 7, has been elected as the new Head of St Peter's College. He will take office on 1 October 2010.

Following the announcement, Mark Damazer said: "I will be leaving a job I have loved. I'm leaving behind a network which is passionately sustained and supported by its audience and by programme makers, commissioners, schedulers and support teams at Radio 4 who are devoted to their work.

"I am more grateful than I can say for the opportunity to have been in charge of Radio 4 for what will be six years and I leave with the hope that Radio 4 – and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ – will continue to be strong and resolute in serving the public who put so much faith and trust in it."

Mark Thompson, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Director-General, said: "Mark's distinguished career at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has spanned many areas – from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service and ´óÏó´«Ã½ News & Current Affairs to Radio 4. His work has been characterised by integrity, total commitment to depth and quality, and a dedication to serving audiences. He has been an outstanding Controller of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4, and I wish him well in his move to academic life at Oxford."

Tim Davie, Director of Audio & Music, said: "Mark has been a quite brilliant Controller of Radio 4 and he leaves the network in excellent health. He has a unique ability to create a schedule for listeners that is intellectually demanding, offers wonderful breadth and is frequently inspiring. His legacy is significant. I have no doubt that he will thrive at Oxford. The team and I will miss him."

The process to appoint a new Controller of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 will begin shortly.

Mark Damazer was appointed Controller of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 7 in October 2004 having been deputy director of ´óÏó´«Ã½ News since April 2001.

He was previously Assistant Chief Executive of the News division (from December 1999) with responsibility for driving the long-term ambition, quality and standards in news programming across all ´óÏó´«Ã½ networks.

Before that he was Head of Political Programmes, responsible for the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s news and current affairs journalism from Westminster, from March 1998. This role placed him in charge of a wide variety of political programming on TV and radio, including Question Time, Westminster, Yesterday In Parliament and The Westminster Hour. He also led the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s team of political correspondents who report for TV, radio and online and oversaw the production of award-winning documentaries.

Mark joined the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service in 1981 as a current affairs producer. He then spent two years with ITV as a producer with TV-am, returning to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in 1984, initially to work on the Sixty Minutes programme and then to help launch the Six O'Clock News later the same year. He became output editor on Newsnight in January 1986 and Deputy Editor on the Nine O'Clock News in August 1988 and in 1990 was appointed Editor.

At the beginning of 1994 he became Editor of Television News Programmes, with responsibility for all news output across TV. He became Head of Weekly Programmes, News and Current Affairs in May 1996 – the department was restructured and renamed Current Affairs in July 1997 – responsible for TV programmes including Panorama and Correspondent and, on radio, File On 4, From Our Own Correspondent and Law In Action together with a range of special documentaries and short series. He took on the extra duties as Assistant Director, ´óÏó´«Ã½ News in 1999 before becoming Deputy Director.

Radio 4 was named UK Station of the Year at the Sony Radio Academy Awards in 2008.

Mark was born in 1955 and educated at Cambridge where he was attained a Double Starred First in History. He was awarded the Harkness Fellowship at Harvard University.

He is a Board Member of the Institute of Contemporary British History, a Vice-Chair of the International Press Institute Executive Board, and a Fellow of the Radio Academy.

Mark is married with two children.

The previous Master, Professor Bernard Silverman FRS, recently took up post as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Home Office.

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