ITV lures first female boss with bumper £8.2m deal
ITV has hired its first female boss after luring Dame Carolyn McCall from easyJet.
Dame Carolyn, 55, will take up the position next year with a pay deal worth up to £8.2million.
The mother of three will become only the second woman to run a major broadcaster in Britain after Channel 4 hired former physicist Alex Mahon last month.
Replacing Adam Crozier, who quit this year, Dame Carolyn has a track record in media. After working as a teacher at a London comprehensive, she worked her way up the commercial department of the Guardian newspaper, eventually becoming the media group’s chief executive.
She moved to easyJet in 2010, where she tripled its share value and boosted passenger numbers by 56 per cent.
She earned a reputation for rolling up her sleeves and helping staff clear up rubbish on flights while asking them about problems with the business. EasyJet chairman John Barton said: ‘I speak for absolutely everyone at easyJet in saying we will be sorry to see Carolyn leave.’
She has her work cut out at ITV, which needs to come up with hits to replace old shows such as X Factor while tackling a slump in advertising and increasing competition from Netflix and Amazon.
Dame Carolyn’s £8.2million pay includes up to £3.2million to make up for the loss of a bonus she was to receive from easyJet, a £900,000 salary, pension contributions of £135,000 and a bonus of up to £1.6million.
In addition, she will get up to £2.4million in shares linked to performance under a long-term incentive plan.