If you haven’t already heard, Dianne Thompson’s taking over as non-executive chairman at the RadioCentre.

Who is she, what’s she going to be doing and why’s she so important for us?

Dianne runs the National Lottery operator, Camelot – she is actually inside every machine deciding on the lucky dips. More importantly, she is one of the most respected executives in the UK, a huge fan of commercial radio and one of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.

In the current financial climate, the RadioCentre’s role has never been more important. It’s there to work with advertisers, Ofcom, the Government and unite all of the different commercial radio stations. There’s no better person to do this than Dianne. Since Di took over at Camelot they got their new license and saw growth in ticket sales. Camelot has also been one of the biggest spenders in radio (in the top 20 spenders each year between ‘97-’06) because of the flexibility in booking ads and the power of being able to talk to millions of people across the country. If we can harness her skills, the future’s bright.

Dianne’s also had a go behind the mic. Last year, I produced a special show she hosted on LBC about the lottery. We talked to winners, good causes, ‘the voice of the balls’ and we also took questions from listeners. The aim was to dispell some of the myths about the lottery and the way it’s run. Dianne was a fab speech radio host – a first class communicator, great at putting people at ease and most importantly very open and honest. The other thing I love about Di is that she’s not averse to the odd glass of bubbles and a good old chinwag (you can take the people out of the north…).

She never gave me the winning numbers though… but if we lock her in Studio A with Russ, who knows?

Paul