1. Sir Roland Francis Kester Keating was born on 5 August 1961 and is a British executive who was chief executive of the British Library from September 2012 to December 2024.
12 Facts About Roly Keating
1. 2.
Roly Keating was educated at Westminster School, and then read classics at Balliol College, Oxford.
3.
Roly Keating was a producer and director for the Arts and Music department, making programmes for Omnibus, Bookmark and Arena.
4.
Roly Keating was a producer and later became editor of The Late Show.
5.
Roly Keating became the Controller of digital television station BBC Four in December 2001, masterminding its launch on 2 March 2002.
6.
Roly Keating became the channel controller for BBC Two in June 2004, a position he held until 2008.
7.
Roly Keating was appointed temporary controller of BBC One following Peter Fincham's resignation on 5 October 2007.
8.
Roly Keating was previously Director of Archive Content for the BBC.
9.
Roly Keating was announced as chief executive designate of the British Library in May 2012, to succeed Dame Lynne Brindley.
10.
Roly Keating was knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to literature.
11.
In 2023, following the British Library cyberattack, Roly Keating exclaimed a "degree of upset, of anger" over the most serious crisis the Library had encountered in decades.
12.
Roly Keating stepped down in January 2025, and was succeeded as chief executive by Rebecca Lawrence.