Jabbar Sardar

Jabbar Sardar joined the BBC in 2016 as Global HR director for BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC which oversees TV production, channels and distribution globally. With over 4,000 people (2,000 staff and 2,000 freelancers) based across sixteen countries, the organisation was formed in April 2018 by merging the legacy distribution (BBC Worldwide) and production (BBC Studios) arms of the BBC. For the past five years he has featured as one of HR magazine's ‘HR Most Influential practitioners’.

BBC Studios combines the strengths of the UK’s most awarded production company with a world-class distributor. Being a creator of – and investor in – UK programmes, the company reaches audiences around the world through over 2500 hours of content every year, including Doctor Who, EastEnders, Strictly Come Dancing, Top Gear, Planet Earth and more. BBC Studios exists ultimately to enhance the BBC’s creative reputation, leverage its intellectual property, and invest in its content. The revenues the company generates supports the wider British creative industries in general and builds awareness of great British content. BBC Studios also, however, assists the BBC’s public service mission by reinvesting our profits back into the BBC. 

Over the last seven years, the company has generated revenues of £1.4bn and returned £200m annually to the BBC Group. Jabbar oversees all people activities for the company, with an ambition to make BBC Studios the best company to work for in the media sector.

Jabbar joined the BBC from Cafcass, where he was Director of HR and OD. Here he led an agenda of total organisational and cultural change, moving Cafcass from being ‘on the edge’ in 2010 to ‘cutting-edge’ in 2014, culminating in 2014 when Cafcass was assessed by Ofsted as ‘Good with Outstanding Leadership.’ Before Cafcass Jabbar was a senior HR professional within a number of large public sector organisations.

Jabbar is Chair of the International Advisory Board at the School of Management at the University of Bradford, and has been a Trustee of Roffey Park since April 2018. He is also on the Steering Group for the Employers Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA).