Dame Jennifer Gita Abramsky, GBE (born 7 October 1946), is a British media producer, philanthropist and Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. She was chairman of the UK's National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF).[1] Until her retirement from the BBC, Abramsky was its most senior woman employee; she was Director of Audio and Music.[2][3][4][5]
Early life and education
Born to a Jewish family, she was the daughter of Miriam, a social worker and former communist who was in Brick Lane during Oswald Mosley's fascist marches, and Chimen Abramsky, a professor of Jewish studies and rare book expert.[6][7] One of her grandfathers was Yehezkel Abramsky, a prominent Orthodox rabbi and scholar who headed the London Beth Din rabbinical court for 17 years.[8]
In 1969, she joined the BBC as a programmes operations assistant, and in 1973 was appointed as a producer of The World at One. She became the first woman editor of the agenda-setting Today programme, ran the first Gulf War Radio 4 News FM service, and went on to launch Britain's first continuous news and sport radio station, BBC Radio 5 Live, before launching the television channel BBC News 24.[6][10][11][12] She launched the BBC's online news website, news.bbc.co.uk. She was named Director of BBC Radio in January 1999 and was subsequently promoted to the BBC's executive board with overall responsibility for BBC Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 Live and the BBC's digital radio stations 1Xtra, BBC 7, 6 Music, 5 Live Sports Extra and the Asian Network; the three BBC orchestras based in England; and the Proms.[13] In 2006 she became Director of Audio and Music – adding online services, audio on demand and podcasting to her remit of broadcast radio.[citation needed]
She had an annual programming budget of £236 million (about US$475m) and a staff of 1,681. Under her leadership, by the first three months of 2007 the BBC's radio stations had an audience share of 56.6 percent – compared with the 13.9 percent of listeners shared by all commercial radio broadcasters – and a reach of almost 33.5 million people – a record, according to Guardian newspaper (9 July 2007).[clarification needed] The paper listed Abramsky as the 18th most powerful person in the UK's media, though she had slipped from No. 11 in the paper's 2006 ranking.[14]
In 2016 she was appointed to the trustees of Canal & River Trust the charity responsible for 2000 miles of canals and rivers in England & Wales. In 2017 she was appointed to be the deputy Chair of Canal & River Trust.[19] She is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee, and is chair of the appointments committee. In April 2024, she was appointed as the Chancellor of the University of East Anglia.[20]
Personal life
Abramsky married Alasdair Liddell, a former head of planning for the NHS, in 1976. They had two children and were married until his death from an aneurism on 31 December 2012.[2][21]
