Background
Slater was born into a sporting family: her father, Bill, was a professional football player who played for England, won the Football player of the Year award in 1960, and won three Football League titles with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Slater was born into a sporting family: her father, Bill, was a professional football player who played for England, won the Football player of the Year award in 1960, and won three Football League titles with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
As a gymnast, she finished runner-up in the British Championships in the same year as her appearance at the Olympics.
Slater became the British Broadcasting Corporation"s first female Director of Sport in April 2009. Previous to this, she had been Head of Production and Head of General sports for a number of years. Her uncle, J J Warr, played for the England cricket team
Slater gained two degrees, at the universities of Birmingham and Oxford, before qualifying to be a PE teacher at Loughborough, one of the most prestigious sporting institutions in the country.
Slater appeared in the gymnastics competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics, carrying the British flag at the opening ceremony, and eventually earned 20 caps as an international gymnast. Slater was first employed by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1983, when she became a trainee Assistant Producer.
In 1984 she joined the British Broadcasting Corporation"s sports division as an Assistant Producer. Slater worked her way up the corporation"s hierarchy as a Producer, Senior Producer, and Executive Producer.
She eventually became head of sports production, and helped produce programmes for events such as The Open and Masters golf, the Commonwealth Games, the Grand National, Ascot and the Derby.
In 2009, it was announced that she would become director of sport, taking over from Roger Mosey, and becoming the first woman to hold the position. Mosey became the British Broadcasting Corporation Director of London 2012. Slater has overseen the department"s relocation to Salford (British Broadcasting Corporation Sport is one of five departments that has been moved from London to Salford), as well as the 2012 Summer Olympics, held in London.
She has also presided over events such as the 2010 World Cup and 2010 Winter Olympics.
Speaking of her appointment, she said "I am thrilled to have this opportunity to lead British Broadcasting Corporation Sport at such an exciting and challenging time, that includes leading the division to its new home at the heart of British Broadcasting Corporation North and also ensuring British Broadcasting Corporation Sport plays its part in making the 2012 Games the success they deserve to be."
During her time as Director of Sport though Slater has overseen the loss of many exclusive British Broadcasting Corporation Sport deals most notably that of full time Formula One coverage from free to air broadcasting to a shared arrangement with Sky Sports lasting 2012 to 2015 with the British Broadcasting Corporation showing half the races live and the rest with highlights. The deal allowed Sky Sports to show every race live.
Further scrutiny was shown with the British Broadcasting Corporation portion of a 2012-2018 deal being sold to Channel 4 for the 2016 to 2018 seasons to make savings. This is in addition the Grand National which saw Channel 4 gain the rights in March 2012.
Further dilution of the British Broadcasting Corporation sports portfolio (together with the loss of advert-free coverage) was announced by Barbara Slater in the guise of a sharing arrangement with Independent Television.
And in September 2015 she announced the imminent loss of yet more live coverage, this time of The Open Championship. Slater was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to sports broadcasting.