The BBC has announced that BBC Future Media & Technology Director Erik Huggers is to leave the company at end-February to become Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Digital Home Group, based at its Silicon Valley headquarters in California. Following his departure, the BBC has decided to reorganise the Future Media & Technology area into two more distinct areas – the development of BBC digital services to the public such as BBC iPlayer (Future Media) and the core, underlying technology which powers the BBC (Technology). Instead of replacing Huggers with a new director, BBC director-general Mark Thompson has asked two of his senior executives to step up. As Chief Technology Officer (CTO), John Linwood will head up a new Technology division which will be responsible for delivering the BBC's digital needs in terms of production, broadcast, connectivity and enterprise support. He will continue to be responsible for Information & Archives. The division will be part of the Operations Group under the overall leadership of the Chief Operating Officer, Caroline Thomson. As CTO, John will sit on the BBC Direction Group (BDG). He has also appointed Ralph Rivera as Director of Future Media, a division which will focus on developing and delivering digital products and services. The changes are effective from 01 March.
