Michael Grade, ITV’s new executive chairman, has hired Carolyn Fairbairn to lead the broadcaster’s corporate development and strategy team.
Fairbairn was the former director of strategy at the BBC, and previously worked with Grade when he was BBC chairman (see
BBC Chairman Jumps Ship To ITV Top Job). He said her experience of “broadcasting and new media platforms will prove invaluable for ITV”.
The new recruit will join ITV on March 5, reporting to John Cresswell, the company’s chief operating officer and finance director. She is currently a partner at management consultants McKinsey, specialising in the media sector.
Cresswell said that Fairbairn would “work across all areas of strategic planning and corporate development in ITV”.
Fairbairn was at the BBC for eight years from 1997, rising to become director of strategy and distribution and a member of the management executive board under director generals Greg Dyke and Mark Thompson.
She was involved in the development of Freeview and the initial stages of drawing up the BBC’s building public value document, which formed the basis of its successful charter renewal bid.
Her other BBC roles included director of strategy for the Corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide.
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