NERC Non-Executive Director
Kim Shillinglaw is a member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Assurance Board and NERC Management Board.
Kim has 30 years’ experience in the media industry, as Controller of BBC2 and BBC4, Director of Factual for the UK’s largest production entity EndemolShine, and Head of Commissioning for Science and Natural History amongst other roles. She is a Non-Exec Director of Natural England, a Non-Exec Director on Ofcom’s Content Board, a Trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a tech education charity; and previously, of the innovation think tank, NESTA.
At EndemolShine, Kim turned around commercial companies, taking them from loss into profit ahead of a successful trade sale. At BBC2 and BBC4, she contemporised the channels with award winning shows from Muslims Like Us to the Black History of Britain, Wolf Hall and Britain’s first transgender sitcom Boy Meets Girl. She brought Women’s Football to the channels and introduced the first non-white presenter of the RI’s Christmas Lectures and the first female presenter of QI. As Head of Science and Natural History she was responsible for bringing new scale and ambition with programmes from Africa to Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II, and domestic brands like Springwatch and Stargazing Live. She led the BBC’s acclaimed Year of Science which doubled audiences to the genre, brought new presenters such as Brian Cox and Liz Bonin to screen, as well as many other working scientists and female scientists. She instigated the corporation’s largest outreach programme, the Make It Digital skills campaign, which reached 80% of the nation and delivered coding devices to every year seven child in the country. Previously, she worked in Children’s Commissioning, where she created the multi-award winning Horrible Histories.
Kim Chaired the BBC’s Commercial Income Taskforce, and the BBC’s Factual Genre Board. She has advised organisations such as the RI, the Science Museum and the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, sat on government panels for DCMS and BEIS, and on committees for the Royal Society, Edinburgh TV Festival and many others. She was educated at Holland Park Comprehensive and Oxford University.
Last updated: 5 September 2023