Elan Closs Stephens

Dame Elan Closs Stephens ( Roberts; born 16 June 1948) is a Welsh academic who has been a non-executive director of the BBC Board since 2017, and Chair of the BBC between 27 June 2023 and 4 March 2024. She is Electoral Commissioner for Wales and Pro-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University. She chairs the UNESCO International Prize for the Creative Economy panel.

Life and career Stephens was born on 16 June 1948 at Talysarn in the Nantlle Valley, Gwynedd, to William Jones Roberts and Mair Closs. She attended the Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle Secondary school before studying English at Somerville College, Oxford. renewed for a second term until 2006. She was a Governor of the British Film Institute until 2007, chairing its Audit and Governance during the refurbishment of the Southbank Centre National Film Theatre. Chairwoman of the Wales Advisory Committee to the British Council until 2011, she was a board member of the Film Agency for Wales and a Trustee of Arts & Business. overseeing CEOs of the Welsh Government arm's-length public bodies.

In 2019, she was appointed Professor Emerita of Communications and Creative Industries at Aberystwyth's Department of Theatre, Film and Television, and Pro-Chancellor of the university.

BBC As a member of the Welsh Assembly Government's Strategic Delivery Performance Board, she was appointed, in October 2010, to the BBC Trust, and, in 2017, was reappointed as member for Wales on the new BBC Board.

Stephens served as Chair of the BBC between 27 June 2023 and 4 March 2024.

Awards and accolades Appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2001 "for services to broadcasting and the Welsh Language",

Stephens is a Deputy Lieutenant for Dyfed since 2019. Elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2019, An Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, Aberystwyth University, Bangor University and of the University of Wales Trinity St David, Stephens has received honorary doctorates from the University of South Wales, the University of Wales and the Open University. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Institute of Welsh Affairs.

Personal life On 27 September 1972, she married Roy Stephens and they had two children. Stephens died in 1989.