Geraint Talfan Davies

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Geraint Talfan Davies (born 30 December 1943) is chairman and one of the co-founders of the Institute of Welsh Affairs, an independent Welsh think-tank. He is also chairman of Welsh National Opera. A journalist by training, he moved into broadcasting and was Controller of BBC Wales from 1990-2000.

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[edit] Personal life and education

Geraint Talfan Davies was born in Carmarthen in 1943 to Mary Anne Davies (d. 1971) and Aneirin Talfan Davies (d. 1980), a Welsh broadcaster, literary critic and poet.

Educated at Bishop Gore Grammar School, Swansea and Cardiff High School for Boys, Davies went on to read Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford, graduating in 1966. In 1967 he married Elizabeth Shân Vaughan, with whom he has three sons.

[edit] Career

Davies' career began in 1966 as a graduate trainee with the Western Mail newspaper in Cardiff, where he became its first Welsh Affairs Correspondent. In 1971 he moved to The Journal newspaper in Newcastle upon Tyne, relocating to The Times in London in 1973 where he worked for a year, before returning to the Western Mail in 1974 as Assistant Editor.

In 1978, Davies moved into broadcasting, as the Head of News and Current Affairs with HTV Wales, becoming Assistant Controller of Programmes in 1982.

He returned to Newcastle in 1987, as Director of Programmes for Tyne Tees Television. 1990 saw his return to Cardiff, at the start of his ten year stint as Controller of BBC Wales, a position that included overall responsibility for the BBC's television and radio operations in Wales, and the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales. Davies retired from the BBC in 2000, at the age of 57. He was succeeded by Menna Richards, who currently still holds the position.

[edit] Notable positions

Geraint Talfan Davies has been involved with many arts, media and educational organisations, including the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff Bay Arts Trust, the Wales International Film Festival, the Artes Mundi Visual Arts Prize, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, the Wales Millennium Centre and Welsh National Opera.

He chaired Welsh National Opera (WNO) for three years, before his appointment in 2003 to the chair of the Arts Council of Wales. Shortly after leaving the Arts Council of Wales in 2006, he was re-elected to the chair of WNO. He is also a board member of the Wales Millennium Centre, a trustee of the Media Standards Trust and vice chairman of the UK Committee of the European Cultural Foundation.

In 2000 he was one of a group that formed Glas Cymru Cyf, with the aim of acquiring Welsh Water with a view to turning it into a not-for-profit company. He is now a non-executive director of Welsh Water. He is also a member of the BT Wales Advisory Forum.

He is an Honorary Doctor of the University of Glamorgan, and an Honorary Fellow of UWIC and of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Davies has previously held numerous other positions:

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