The BBC is facing calls to investigate its Australian-born controller amid claims she also works for a media training company the broadcaster pays to help its staff.
Jay Hunt, 42, has been accused of having a conflict of interest while holding the BBC's top job and serving as the company secretary of media training company Brightspark TV.
The company is owned by Hunt's husband Ian Blandford and has a contract to coach BBC staff.
British MPs have called on the BBC to investigate and demanded Hunt either step down from the broadcaster or give up her job with her husband's media company.
Conservative MP Philip Davies called on the BBC Trust to investigate whether Hunt's dual roles were "an acceptable conflict of interest".
"Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, it certainly leaves her susceptible to those kinds of concerns and allegations as it is a clear conflict of interest," he told The Daily Mail.
However the BBC said they had been aware of Hunt's ties to Brightspark and that her role with the training company was unpaid.
"The BBC's rigorous conflict-of-interest policy lays down strict procedures to prevent an actual conflict of interest arising," a spokesman said.
"Where executives have a close relationship with someone in a company we are doing business with, they may not play a role in the decision-making process related to the award of any such business including any commercial sum agreed."
Hunt joined the BBC in May 2008 after quitting her previous job as programming chief at commercial broadcaster Channel Five.
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