Frontrunner for ITV chief exec job to shakeup board

Tony Ball, ex-chief executive of BSkyB and frontrunner for the ITV chief exec job, has indicated that he would bring in new board members if appointed.

Ball would bring in new non-executive directors to replace people such as Sir James Crosby and Sir Adrian Russell, according to a report in the Observer.

Mike Clasper, appointed to the ITV board as a non-executive in 2006, is understood to be Ball’s choice to become non-executive chairman.

The chief exec job is vacant after Michael Grade announced in April that he would be stepping down.

The Observer reports a source as warning that some shareholders were unhappy that Ball had apparently usurped the recruitment process being run by the City headhunter Russell Reynolds, although it quotes the source as saying: “The vast majority support his candidature. The job is there if he wants it.”

Last week, it was revealed that Lord Carter will be stepping down as communications minister and he is one of the other names being mentioned in connection with the ITV role, alongside Malcolm Wall, formerly with media group UBM; John Smith, boss of BBC Worldwide; and Peter Smith of NBC Universal.