CEO of BBC Worldwide John Smith, before joining the TV corporation in 1989, graduated from Harvard Business School and held executive positions in various companies including British Rail Engineering Ltd. and other firms in the BR Group. Seven years after he joined the BBC, he was promoted to Finance Director and thereafter held other top positions including: Director of Finance, Property & Business Affairs until he became the company’s COO in 2004 and the following year, CEO. In this capacity, Smith engineered the sale of BBC Technology to Siemens as well as the BBC Broadcast sale to Creative Broadcast Services Ltd. which thereafter became Red Bee Media.