MUMBAI: Sunday Telegraph associate editor and former Financial Times financial editor, Robert Peston, has been appointed as the BBC's new business editor. He takes up this post next year.

Robert said, "The BBC, as the world's leading news organisation, must remain ahead of the game on the business stories that touch all our lives, explaining to the non-specialist why a corporate or markets event matters and doing so with an authority and intelligence that forces business leaders to tune in and take notice. Jeff Randall transformed BBC business journalism. If it's not tempting fate, my job is to build on that achievement".

Robert who is also a former city editor at The Sunday Telegraph and political editor of the Financial Times, succeeds Jeff Randall. He will work across a range of BBC news outlets, including the Today programme and the Ten O'Clock News.

BBC head of newsgathering, Fran Unsworth said, "Robert makes for a great successor to Jeff Randall. He brings enormous expertise to the role and has the ability to relay the significance and relevance of business developments to all audiences."