Channel 4 sales chief Veriça Djurdjevic exit: CEO’s letter to staff in full
Channel 4’s chief revenue officer, Veriça Djurdjevic, is leaving the broadcaster, having decided to look for another opportunity.
CEO Alex Mahon informed staff of Djurdjevic’s departure today (Tuesday). The Media Leader understands that it was Djurdevic’s decision to leave Channel 4 and, as part of a planned transition, will remain with the business until the end of this year.
The public-service broadcaster announced plans in January to cut nearly a fifth of its workforce, or around 240 jobs, in response to a difficult advertising market.
Djurdjevic joined Channel 4 from Omnicom media agency PHD in 2020, succeeding Jonathan Allan, who was promoted to chief commercial officer.
In a statement, she said: “It’s been a privilege to lead the Channel 4 Sales team through a pivotal time in Channel 4’s history. I am incredibly proud of the team and their customer-centric approach, which has led to the creation of new solutions for both new and old business problems.
“From Black in Business to direct social sales, the breadth and depth of Channel 4’s offering goes from strength to strength. I will delight in cheering the team on as they continue to push forward and create the best advertising experience in market.”
CEO’s letter to staff
I’m writing to let you know that after four transformational years at the channel, Veriça Djurdjevic, chief revenue officer, will be leaving the business at the end of the year.
Veriça has played a key role in delivering our Future4 strategy and growing the diversification of our revenues, with digital revenues achieving double-digit growth every year during the past four years.
She has been a tireless champion of a customer-focused approach, both maximising opportunities for our agency and advertiser partners, while cementing our industry reputation as one of the most pioneering and best sales teams in the market. This approach has supported the team’s strong and positive relationships right across the board, with network agencies, independent agencies and advertisers alike.
Under her leadership, our commercial team has also expanded into new areas of digital growth. We now have new capabilities in direct social sales and retail data partnerships and have grown other high-impact opportunities, including our bespoke private marketplace for streaming as well as our ad-lite proposition. Additionally, the development of our new ecommerce offering — a key pillar of our Fast Forward strategy — is on track to deliver a step-change in the user experience for viewers and advertisers.
Veriça’s support of our Channel 4 Ventures team has helped to develop new strategic initiatives such as Untapped, our groundbreaking initiative to invest in entrepreneurs traditionally overlooked by the VC ecosystem. And her support of Thinkbox has championed the power of TV for advertisers more widely.
We’ve also seen our sales team rack up over 40 industry awards, including Sales Team of Year, which is testament to the positive team culture and results Veriça and the team have achieved during her tenure.
I am especially grateful to Veriça for her support as a member of the executive team, leading us through the challenges of lockdown, our expansion into the nations and regions, mitigating the stresses of recent harder market conditions and the time and care she has put into building and developing her team.
We will now start the process to recruit a new chief sales officer and Veriça will continue in post for many months yet to support the team and the transition.
Please join me in thanking Veriça for her remarkable contribution during this key time in our evolution and wishing her all the very best for her future endeavours.
Alex
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