John Walter Jones

Who is John Walter Jones?

John Walter Jones was the first Chief Executive of the Welsh Language Board, a post which he held between 1993 and 2004.

John Walter Jones was born in Moelfre, Anglesey and educated in Bangor and the University of Wales Institute Cardiff. An economics graduate, he worked in the Welsh Office in Cardiff and London, where he was a private secretary to three Welsh Office Ministers.

In 1981 John was responsible for setting up the Government's first ever grants regime in support of the Welsh Language and in 1988 he was seconded to establish the non-statutory Welsh Language Board. He became the first Chief Executive of the statutory Welsh Language Board in 1993.

Jones retired from the Welsh Language Board in 2004, and that year he was ordained to the Order of the Bards at the National Eisteddfod in Newport. He also received an OBE for services to the Welsh language in the same year.

In April 2006, he was appointed Chairman of Welsh-language television channel S4C.