Samir Shah is the Chief Executive and Creative Director of Juniper, an independent television and radio production company.
Samir was awarded a CBE in the 2019 Birthday Honours list for services to Television and Heritage. He has worked in broadcasting for over forty years. Since 1998, Samir has been CEO and owner of Juniper which specialises in television and radio factual programmes from current affairs to dramatised documentaries for a range of broadcasters including the BBC, C4 and Nat Geo. Before Juniper, Samir was head of current affairs television at the BBC and, later, responsible for the BBC’s political journalism across radio and television. Samir’s career started at the London Weekend Television in 1979.
In June 2014 Samir was made Chair of The Geffrye, Museum of the Home, a position he currently holds. From 2005 to 2014, he was a Trustee, then Deputy Chair, of the V&A. Samir was a Non-Executive Director on the BBC Board between 2007 and 2010. He is a former Chair of the Runnymede Trust (1999 to 2009) and is a Trustee of Reprieve. He was former Chair of Screen West Midlands (2008-201). From 2004-2007, Samir was a Trustee of the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture.
Samir was awarded an OBE in 2000 New Year’s Honours list, elected a Fellow of the Royal Television Society in 2002 and, in 2019, was appointed Visiting Professor of Creative Media, Oxford University (Faculty of English). In August 2006 Samir was appointed a Special Professor in Post Conflict Studies in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Nottingham.
Samir was born In India and came to England in 1960. He was educated at Latymer Upper School in London, read Geography and Maths at the University of Hull and has a DPhil from St Catherine’s College, Oxford.