ITV appoints Archie Norman as

RNS Number : 6791C

ITV PLC

18 November 2009

 



ITV APPOINTS ARCHIE NORMAN AS CHAIRMAN

The Board of ITV plc is pleased to announce the appointment of Archie Norman as Non Executive Chairman. He will take up the role in January 2010, at which time Michael Grade, Executive Chairman, will stand down from the company and John Cresswell will become Interim Chief Executive.  

Archie Norman said;

"There are few opportunities that would have tempted me back into the public company arena, but ITV is definitely one of them. It is an irresistible challenge, a great brand, a people business with enormous talent, but facing an imperative for change: the challenge of adapting to compete in a fragmented digital media world."  

"Thanks to Michael Grade's remarkable work the company has come through the worst advertising recession for decades and now has a strong platform to embrace that challenge."

Sir James Crosby, Chairman of the Nomination Committee, on behalf of the Board said;

"We are delighted that Archie is to become the next Chairman of ITV. He has an outstanding track record in business and we believe that his extensive experience of both business and public life will be of significant benefit to ITV in the years ahead."

"As a Board we would like to thank Michael Grade for his significant contribution to ITV over the past three years and wish him well for the future."

Michael Grade, Executive Chairman, said;

"I have always been a great admirer of Archie and am delighted to be handing over the reins to him. He inherits a company that is more popular and efficient that it has been for many years and I know he will build on that legacy."

Sir James Crosby is also ITV's Senior Independent Director. He has today announced his intention to resign from the Board. He will stand down on the appointment of a successor to this role.

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Notes to Editors

Remuneration

Archie Norman's remuneration will be made up of a combination of fees and shares. He will be paid fees of £300,000 per annum. In addition he has been allocated 1.2 million shares at today's value. He will receive 400,000 of these shares each year for the next three years.

Biography

Archie Norman is one of Britain's leading businessmen with a long term track record of business change and value creation. He has led transformations of major British businesses, served on the Boards of several others, and built over time very strong management teams who are now in leading positions in several major British companies. Archie has also served as a Member of Parliament for eight years and worked at the highest level in British politics.

Archie was a member of a three strong team that established and built Kingfisher plc in the 1980s to become Britain's leading general merchandise retailer. In 1991 he moved to ASDA to lead the turnaround as Chief Executive. Over the subsequent eight years the business was transformed into the second largest supermarket group before being sold to Wal-Mart for an eight times multiple of the starting share price. Latterly, Archie acquired Energis, Britain's third largest telecoms business, on behalf of the creditor banks and over three years refocused and rebuilt the business before agreeing a sale to Cable and Wireless for double the original enterprise value.

Archie has also served for eight years as a Member of Parliament, including as Chief Executive of the Conservative Party and as a leading member of the Shadow Cabinet. He led the first stages of the reform of the Conservative Party after the 1997 electoral defeat and rose to become the opposite number to the Deputy Prime Minister. Subsequently he founded the well known think tank "Policy Exchange".

In November 2003 Archie Norman was appointed as Senior Advisor to Lazard. In November 2007 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of Coles Group, the second largest retailer in Australia, and has played a leading role in setting the strategy and recruiting the team for potentially the largest turnaround project in global retailing. He is an advisor to the Board of Wesfarmers Limited.

Archie has set up a management partnership, Aurigo Management Partners, which seeks to acquire underperforming, distressed, or unfashionable businesses which are capable of responding to the management intensive approach. In June 2007 Aurigo acquired HSS, the UK's second largest equipment hire business.

Archie has served as a non executive director on the Board of a number companies including British Rail, Railtrack and Geest. He was previously the youngest partner at McKinsey and Co and has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MA from Cambridge University. He is on the Board of the NIESR, has an Honorary Degree from Leeds Metropolitan University, was a Director of the Judge Institute, has been elected to the Marketing Society Hall of Fame, and been voted Retailer of the Year and Yorkshire Businessman of the Year.

 

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