Well I never - new Chief Executive for Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House has announced that their new Chief Executive will be Alex Beard, currently Deputy Director of the Tate. He will be taking up his post 'in readiness for the 2013/14 season'. He has been at the Tate since 1994 and Deputy Director since 2002. He is described as having a life-long interest in music and has been on the board of Glyndebourne Productions Ltd since 2008. So it looks as if, as quite a few people projected, they have gone for a highly qualified arts chief executive figure rather than a mover and shaker from the arts world. Let us hope that Beard manages to repeat the success of Tony Hall in the post.