Protokroll

After a front row seat in the toasty Public Accounts Committee grilling last September, BBC Trust fixer Nicholas Kroll has decided that retirement at 60 (in June) is for him.

Nicholas (CB, Corpus Christi, Oxford) first came to the BBC in October 2004, as part of the seemingly never-ending fiddles with the way the BBC is "governed". He was appointed as Director of Governance, working to the old Governors, then under the chairmanship of Michael Grade, in a move to make them more independent of the Executive. When that was deemed an insufficient change, the Governors morphed into the Trust in January 2007, and our Nick became its first Director. He leaves after nearly 10 years -"During that period I believe the governance of the BBC has become stronger" (but perhaps not quickly enough to control DMI, severance payments, salaries and sundry journalistic failings).

His current annual package is worth £246,480, and he ought to get around £40k pension to add to whatever 27 years in the Civil Service generates. The coffee bars of Great Portland Street may lose business, but Kroll-run musical soirees on the Clapham/Wandsworth front line should be more relaxed.