The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the National Archives would help universities, local authorities and other institutions to improve public access, including putting documents online.
He is a Non-Executive director of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and joined the English National Opera eight years ago, where he revamped the website before becoming chairman this year.
The UK National Commission for UNESCO welcomes the announcement from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to draw up a new UK Tentative List for nominations to the UNESCO World Heritage List.