Broadcasting outsider gets top job at ITV
ITV yesterday defended its decision to appoint Adam Crozier – a man with virtually no broadcasting experience – to lead the beleaguered firm.
Chairman Archie Norman said that Crozier’s experience as chief executive of the Royal Mail had given him the skills to steer ITV through a “transformational period”.
“Some think we should have looked for a star broadcaster – but we already have the best broadcasting talent in the business,” he said. “What they need is a man to transform the firm.”
Crozier, 46, has a track history of taking on difficult jobs. For the last six years he has run the Royal Mail, turning it from a business that was losing £1m a day to one that announced operating profits of £321m last year.
His performance at the Royal Mail earned him plaudits from the government – the firm’s only shareholder – and fellow business leaders.
But his attempts to modernise the postal service set him on a collision course with workers and unions.
Norman tried to soothe the nerves of ITV’s creative types, who are worried about Crozier’s management style, assuring them he “was strong, quiet and not egocentric”.
Prior to the Royal Mail, Crozier headed up the Football Association and advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi.