Leading around the world

The BBC Leadership Programme, at Ashridge in the UK, opened its doors to the first group of international delegates on Wednesday, 2 June 2004.

It brought together leaders from across the world, from Japan to New York, Brussels to Nairobi, with delegates representing BBC Global News (BBC World Service, BBC World and BBC Monitoring) BBC Worldwide and BBC News.

The Wednesday evening was an opportunity for international leaders to meet and talk to pan-divisional members of the International Steering Group and the Leadership Around the World team

At the first session of the programme, on Thursday, 3 June, deputy director-general Mark Byford welcomed all participants from across the UK and around the world, saying: "When you've run the BBC's international services, what you realise is people in the UK have no clue whatsoever about the scale, the impact and the diversity of the BBC across the world - this is your chance.

"I'd say over the next 2 days if all you do is huddle and don't talk to the people here about their experiences of working for the BBC outside the UK, you've lost your chance that you don't normally get."