James Mark Dakin Purnell is a British broadcasting executive and former Labour Party politician who served as Work and Pensions Secretary and Culture Secretary in the Brown Government from 2007 to 2009. In October 2016, he became BBC's Director of Radio, in addition to his other role as the BBC's Director of Strategy and Digital, a job he had held since March 2013. In 2020 he left the BBC to become vice-chancellor of University of the Arts London.