Read this: Ariel - What price a safe pair of hands?

Summary: The scale of his salary and the terms of his 1m settlement have become a kind of shorthand for cushy jobs and lax management. It is hard to feel sympathy for people leaving the BBC with six, let alone seven-figure compensation but, taking the case of Mark Byford in particular, I have felt there is a side to his story that hasn't been heard. He spent 32 years at the BBC and held a sequence of high-level jobs before becoming deputy director general in 2004. - bbc.co.uk