Fru Hazlitt joins ITV

ITV has appointed former GCap CEO Fru Hazlitt to the newly created role of managing director of commercial and online.

Hazlitt, whose previous positions also include CEO of Virgin Radio and MD of Yahoo UK, will join ITV on 2 August.

The new role brings together ITV’s airtime sales and online businesses and comes out of the company’s ongoing strategic review.

ITV said that the move signals its intent to more fully exploit its properties and brands commercially across multiple platforms.

Adam Crozier, ITV chief executive, said: “My priority on arriving at ITV was to put in place the top team to deliver the strategy that will transform the company over the next 3-5 years.  That means finding the right people with the right skills and experience to create ITV’s future.

“Fru’s background in general management, her proven commercial skills and her online experience with Yahoo make her the ideal candidate for this pivotal new role.

She is renowned for her tremendous energy, her understanding of both media and technology and her ability to deliver real change and results on the ground. She will be an integral part of the engine room that will drive ITV’s future performance alongside Peter Fincham and Kevin Lygo.

“We already have the best television airtime sales team in the country under Gary Digby, but we need to get better at exploiting our brands fully across all platforms and reducing our reliance on a single volatile revenue stream.”