BBC boss Kamal Ahmed who was shamed into returning £12,000 fee for speaking to hedge fund managers gave two other corporate speeches
- A £1.2billion property developer and a bank both paid the Corporation executive
- Mr Ahmed was last week shamed into handing back £12,000 to a hedge fund
- There was outrage he was using £200,000 taxpayer-funded role to profit
The BBC’s under-fire editorial director Kamal Ahmed has been hit with fresh claims of profiting from lucrative corporate speeches.
A £1.2billion property developer and a bank both paid the Corporation executive to speak at their events last year, according to the Sunday Times.
Mr Ahmed was this week shamed into handing back £12,000 to a hedge fund amid outrage he was using his £200,000 taxpayer-funded role to line his pockets.
Last night’s revelations he also took paid engagements for a dinner at St Modwen Properties and a British Business Bank breakfast event fuelled further fury.
The BBC’s under-fire editorial director Kamal Ahmed has been hit with fresh claims of profiting from lucrative corporate speeches (pictured in 2017)
It comes at a delicate time for the BBC, which has announced swingeing job cuts to its news division to make £80million worth of savings.
The 450 redundancies, announced by Mr Ahmed, 52, has intensified the scrutiny on Mr Ahmed’s personal money-making.
His agent Mary Greenham told the newspaper her client had spoke at St Mowden on March 21 after a colleague pulled out a the eleventh-hour.
She also confirmed he moderated a breakfast panel at a finance conference run by the government-owned British Business Bank on February 11.
A statement from the broadcaster said their journalists are allowed to ‘carry out external speaking, or chairing, engagements as long as they maintain objectivity and impartiality’.
It comes at a delicate time for the BBC, which has announced swingeing job cuts to its news division to make £80million worth of savings (Mr Ahmed, right, pictured making the announcement)
Mr Ahmed’s speaking fee for these two events is being kept secret, but he is listed on the Speakers Associates website in the £10,000 to £25,000 per appearance category.
Last week, the Mail on Sunday revealed how Mr Ahmed took home £12,000 for a 40-minute appearance at the Aberdeen Standard Investment’s earlier this month.
He took part in a panel discussion hosted by Steph McGovern, his former BBC colleague who now works for Channel 4.
He later apologised for taking payment, returned the money and vowed that he will not be taking any money from organisers.
Mr Ahmed is among the runners and riders to replace Lord Tony Hall as the BBC’s next director general.
The BBC is also bracing for an onslaught from Downing Street, which has mooted axing the licence fee.
A source told the Sunday Times the BBC could be forced to sell off most of its radio stations in a ‘massive pruning back’ of its activities.
But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today said that while there was a consultation under way into decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee, there were no ‘preordained’ decisions on future funding models.