The BBC is moving is deputy director of policy and strategy, Kerstin Mogull, to be chief operating officer of its future media and technology division (FM&T) - a move designed to strengthen management control following the £36 million BBC.co.uk 2007/08 overspend.

The new role, reporting to new FM&T controller Erik Huggers, is designed to ”focus on the effective management and governance of the division, its partnership with the BBC’s other divisions and its relationship with the BBC Trust”. Essentially it’s an organisation and compliance role, ensuring management and policy is kept on track while Huggers works at the coalface. He said the new role was “critical”, allowing FM&T to build “real coherence”.

At £110 million, last year’s BBC.co.uk spend was £24.9 million over even the 10 percent extra margin allowed by the regulator. The overspend was attributed to financial misallocation between departments and the trust blamed the oversight on poor management and communication. In July, the BBC said it would introduce “a new set of rigorous controls” under a new “group controller” role for BBC.co.uk, ensuring “distinctiveness” from the commercial sector, more links to third parties and better search functionality.

Though the overspend was partly blamed on the former New Media unit’s roles being split across three new BBC divisions last year, the COO appointment means FM&T manages to carry on without being re-centralised. Stockholm-born Mogull was also previously strategy group controller, responsible for setting and monitoring BBC performance objectives and for directing strategic initiatives including iPlayer, as well as communicating with Ofcom and the trust.

• BBC.co.uk Adds New Controller To Guard Against Another Overspend
• BBC.co.uk Overspent By £36 Million, ‘Ineffective’ Bosses Must Change, Investment Frozen
• BBC.co.uk Review: Auntie Accepts Inadequacy, Disputes Overspend