The Charter Review, which is due in 2006, will decide the fate of the BBC's licence fee as well as setting out its future aims and objectives.
For Gardam, it is his second appointment to a panel on the BBC. He was recently named to head the reviews of the BBC's digital television and radio services, along with Patrick Barwise.
The panel's appointment was agreed with Terry Burns, Jowell's independent adviser on the review of the charter.
Burns and the panel will work together to advise Jowell on key issues and, subject to commercial confidentiality, their advice will be published. The themes the panel will consider have all arisen from and been defined by a major public consultation on the future of the BBC, which kicked off the Charter Review process.
Others sitting on the panel are: Alan Budd, provost of The Queen's College Oxford and former chief economic adviser to the Treasury and head of the government economic service; Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics, previously the first chairman and chief executive of the Financial Services Authority; Janet Finch, vice-chancellor and professor of social relations at Keele University; and Alice Rawsthorn, director of the Design Museum and former Financial Times journalist.
In a statement, Jowell said: "We launched this Charter Review by asking viewers and listeners what they want from the BBC -- a first for a Charter Review. I will now look to Terry and his panel to marshal and formulate the arguments that have come out of this consultation, as we move towards forming a considered view of what the BBC of the future should look like.
"All aspects of the BBC will be assessed as we go through this process. The only certain outcome will be a strong BBC, independent of government."
The culture secretary said that the panel's work will focus around a series of seminars to debate key issues, such as funding, governance and quality of services. The seminar series, which will be held at the DCMS in front of a small, invited audience, will begin at the end of next month and run through the autumn. The seminars' findings will be published on the Charter Review website.
The outcome of the seminars will play a key role in developing themes for a future Green Paper, expected to be published for consultation around the end of the year.
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