BBC’s Barbara Slater wins SVG Europe Women Achievement Award 2020

Director of sport rewarded for her continuing impact on women in sports television

Left to right: Lise Cosimi, external head of SVG Europe Women; Barbara Slater, BBC director of sport; and Heather McLean, SVG Europe editor and internal head of SVG Europe Women.

BBC director of sport Barbara Slater was presented with the inaugural SVG Europe Women Achievement Award at a special ceremony in London on Thursday 30 January 2020.

The Award was bestowed for Slater’s outstanding achievements in sports broadcasting and her continued impact on women in sports television over the last 12 months.

The new SVG Europe Women advisory board made nominations and held a final secret ballot to decide on the winner.

Lise Cosimi, external head of SVG Europe Women, commented: “Barbara Slater is a worthy winner of the first-ever SVG Europe Women Achievement Award. It was a hard decision for the SVG Europe Women Advisory Board to find the right person to present this award to.

“However, Barbara stood out as a person who has not only enjoyed a long and incredibly successful career throughout years when it wasn’t necessarily simple to achieve what she has achieved as a woman, especially in the sports broadcasting arena but over 2019 she also spearheaded the BBC’s #changethegame women’s summer of sport.”

“That campaign showcased athletes, teams and presenters, and has really helped push women’s sport into the mainstream,” continued Cosimi.

“Barbara is a figurehead and role model for all women looking to move into sports broadcasting or to push themselves further up the career ladder. It was our pleasure to present Barbara with this award,” Cosimi concluded.

“Barbara is a figurehead and role model for all women looking to move into sports broadcasting or to push themselves further up the career ladder.”

Slater took up her role as BBC director of sport in April 2009 having previously been head of production and head of general sports for the department.

She is responsible for approximately 20,000 hours of global sports coverage across radio, TV and online each year, including live sporting events, highlights, sports news and magazine programmes.

Her responsibilities include working with governing bodies to retain a broad portfolio of broadcasting rights, overseeing the planning and coverage of major sporting events and leading the sports journalism operation at BBC Sport’s home in Salford.

Slater joined the BBC in 1983 as a trainee assistant producer in the Natural History Unit in Bristol, but has spent most of her career as a producer in BBC Sport, specialising in outside broadcasts and overseeing the production of a range of sports including tennis and golf.

She was awarded the OBE in 2014 for her services to sports broadcasting. Slater, who grew up in Birmingham, was an international gymnast, competing for Great Britain at the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976.

The SVG Europe Women Achievement Award 2020 was presented to Barbara Slater by sports presenter Abi Stephens on 30 January 2020 at BT Sport studios during the SVG Europe Women Winter Networking Event, in association with BT Sport and Timeline Television.