In June 2015 Culture Secretary John Whittingdale named Highfield as one of eight people on an advisory board tasked with working on the renewal of the BBC's royal charter - which sets out the corporation's remit.
Educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and City University, London, Highfield joined Coopers & Lybrand, (now PwC) on graduation, working as a management consultant in the TMT sector for six years.
In 1994 he returned to the UK to become head of IT and New Media for NBC Europe,[2] before joining Flextech - a pay-TV channel provider - where he worked for five years as director of interactive services.
[3] In October 2000 he joined the BBC as Director of New Media & Technology[2] working for Greg Dyke who said in his autobiography Inside Story[4] "Ashley is one of the most inventive people I know".
Dyke also said "Ashley didn't have an easy task bringing all the BBC's online activity under one division, but he did it with great success".
In 2005, under new Director General Mark Thompson, Highfield retained his place on the new slimmed-down Executive Board and was given additional responsibility for Broadcast and Production technology across the BBC.
[7] Kangaroo was a joint venture between BBC, ITV & Channel 4 offering an internet-based one stop shop for all TV programmes on-demand, which was halted by the Competition Commission.