ITV Unveils New Board
ITV has unveiled its new board and management structure following the Competition Commission’s decision to allow its £4 billion merger with limited behavioural conditions (see ITV Cleared To Merge With Sales Houses Intact).
Upon completion of the merger, Michael Green, who currently heads up Carlton, will become chairman, while Charles Allen the chairman of Granada, will become chief executive.
Six non-executive directors, three from Carlton and three from Granada, have also been appointed to guide the merger.
The three non-executives drawn from the Carlton board are Boots chairman John McGrath, former Disney head honcho Etienne de Villiers and the former Lloyds TSB chief executive, Sir Brian Pitman.
The Granada board members are the former Sky deputy managing director, David Chance, the chief executive of HBOS, James Crosby, and Sir George Russell, the former Camelot chairman.
The next layer of management will be comprised of divisional executives from both Carlton and Granada. Mick Desmond will become chief executive of ITV broadcasting and enterprises and Clive Jones will take up the position of chief executive of ITV’s news group. Meanwhile Graham Parrott will become commercial director and Simon Shaps is to become chief executive of Granada Production.
Carlton has also revealed the team is working on an accelerated timetable to bring the merger to completion and the relevant documents will be posted to shareholders at the earliest possible date.
The National Union of Journalists has warned of a potential threat to regional news and programmes from the merger of the ITV giants.
Commenting on the problem, John Fray, deputy general secretary of the NUJ, said: “There seems to be no requirement on the companies for a commitment to regional programming. There are safeguards on advertising and there will be safeguards for the smaller ITV broadcasters but there’s nothing on programmes or on regional news, which is a vital part of the ITV network.
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com
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