Morrison Ends 28 Year Tenure At Granada

As rumoured in the press yesterday (see Morrison Could Leave Granada Within A Matter Of Weeks), Granada’s chief executive Steve Morrison is to leave the company at the end of September, it was confirmed this morning. Current chairman, Charles Allen, is to take Morrison’s role heading up the company, also as expected.

Morrison’s departure is thought to have been pushed through following shareholder dissatisfaction at the collapse of ITV Digital, Granada and Carlton Communications’ joint digital pay-TV platform.

As part of the management restructure that will follow Morrison’s departure, Mick Desmond, managing director at Granada, will become chief executive of Broadcasting and Enterprises. Sir George Russell joins the Board as non-executive deputy chairman; he has previously held chairman and chief executive roles at Camelot, 3i, Marley and British Alcan.

Morrison, who has been with Granada for 28 years, says that he is now interested in moving into areas of film and television production and multimedia education. During his tenure at the company, it has moved from being a northwest regional station to ITV’s largest broadcaster and one of Europe’s biggest programme producers; Morrison was central to this expansion.

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