Ann Wilson, Managing Director of BBC Technology, was sacked on Monday for "misuse of hospitality".
It's very unusual for such a senior, highly paid executive to be dismissed summarily.  There's no word about what exactly she did wrong, though several of the papers say there are whispers it was to do with overseas travel.
Ms Wilson joined the BBC in 2002 from the international management consultancy, Arthur D. Little.
This is made more embarrassing for the BBC because BBC Technology is up for sale and eight bidders have been shortlisted: CSC, Fujitsu, EDS, Capita, Accenture, IBM, Logica and HP.
Mark Byford, in an email to staff, said Ms Wilson's departure would not affect the sale, which is being supervised by the BBC's CTO, John Varney.