Vice-President of the Conference in 1997, born in Birmingham. He took a degree in History at Oxford and became an accountant. He joined the BBC in 1964, worked his way up through the management and financial side of the Corporation and was its Director-General 1987-1992, a period of radical change. Brought up as a Baptist, he became a Methodist by marriage. Among various other offices, he is Chairman of NCH.
'Sir Michael Checkland … was a remarkable director general in a different way. He broke the mould in not being some kind of Titan, but a normal, likeable human being who contrived to steer the organization through a difficult time without undue fuss or pomposity by sheer knowledge and ability, quietly applied.'
Colin Morris, in Methodist Recorder, 19 June 1997