Kamal Ahmed has been appointed as editorial director of BBC News, the corporation has announced.
The journalist has been the BBC’s economics editor since 2016, having previously been business editor.
In his new role he will be responsible for shaping the BBC’s future editorial strategy, focusing on storytelling and explanatory journalism, and providing the link between audience research and BBC output.
BBC News has announced two new senior appointments. @BBCKamal Ahmed has been appointed Editorial Director and Gavin Allen as Head of News Output. Both will take up their new roles in the autumn. #BBCNews
— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) July 30, 2018
The BBC also announced Gavin Allen has been appointed head of news output, having previously been controller of daily news programmes.
He will be responsible for a multimedia daily news output and programmes team, which will replace the separate daily news programmes, channels and the daily mobile and online teams.
Allen has been headed up daily news programmes since 2014 and previously worked on BBC Radio 4’s Today, The Politics Show and Question Time.
The appointments are part of a restructure to the news group board, which will also see Fiona Campbell move into the newly created role of digital director.
Fran Unsworth, director of news at the BBC, said: “Kamal will bring verve, ambition and fresh editorial insight to the role and I’m thrilled he’s joining my top team.
“I’m delighted to have Gavin’s extensive experience across many BBC programmes and strong editorial judgement leading this department.”
Ahmed and Allen will both start their new roles in the autumn.