Elan Closs Stephens

Dame Elan Closs Stephens (' Roberts'''; born 16 June 1948) is a Welsh academic who has been a non-executive director of the BBC Board since 2017, and Chair of the BBC between 27 June 2023 and 4 March 2024. Specialising in cultural and broadcasting policy, she is also Electoral Commissioner for Wales and Pro-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University. She also chairs the UNESCO International Prize for the Creative Economy panel.

Life and career
Born at Talysarn in the Nantlle Valley, Gwynedd, to William Jones Roberts and Mair Closs, she was educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle before going up to read English at Somerville College, Oxford.

Professor Emerita of Communications and Creative Industries at Aberystwyth's Department of Theatre, Film and Television, in 2019, she was appointed Pro-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University.

Between 2009 and 2018, Stephens was a non-executive director of the Welsh Government's Strategic Delivery and Performance Board, chaired by the Permanent Secretary. In 2017, she was appointed Chairwoman of the Public Leadership Forum, overseeing CEOs of 41 Welsh Government arm's-length public bodies.

In 1998, Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, appointed Stephens to chair the S4C Authority, renewed for a second term until 2006. She was a Governor of the British Film Institute until 2007, chairing its Audit and Governance during the refurbishment of the Southbank Centre National Film Theatre. Chairwoman of the Wales Advisory Committee to the British Council until 2011, she was a board member of the Film Agency for Wales and a Trustee of Arts & Business.

Between 2001 and 2006, Stephens chaired Chwarae Teg, a body promoting economic development for women in Wales. After delivering the Stephens Report in 2006 on the financing and structure of the Arts in Wales to the Welsh Assembly Government, in 2009 she was appointed by the then Welsh Assembly Government's Minister for Social Justice and Local Government to chair the Recovery Board for Isle of Anglesey County Council, having delivered, in 2006, the Stephens Report on the financing and structure of the Arts in Wales to the Welsh Assembly Government. A member of the Welsh Assembly Government's Strategic Delivery Performance Board, in October 2010 she was appointed to the BBC Trust and in 2017 reappointed as member for Wales on the new BBC Board. Appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2001 "for services to broadcasting and the Welsh Language", Stephens was promoted DBE in the 2019 Birthday Honours.

High Sheriff of Dyfed for 2012/13, Stephens is a Deputy Lieutenant for Dyfed since 2019. Elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2019, An Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, Aberystwyth University, Bangor University and of the University of Wales Trinity St David, Stephens has received honorary doctorates from the University of South Wales, the University of Wales and the Open University. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Institute of Welsh Affairs.

Family
Married on 23 September 1972 to Roy Stephens, who died in 1989, she has two children.