He is a fellow of The Radio Academy. He was a first board member of the joint industry radio research body, RAJAR, in the early 1990s and was also a board member of BARB, the television audience research body. He was a trustee of the "Children in Need" charity from 1992 to 1996. In 1999, he established the BBC World Service Trust, the BBC's international development charity, which used media and communications to reduce poverty and promote education and human rights around the world.