McCall hires Easyjet ally in ITV shake-up

ITV boss Dame Carolyn McCall has brought in a former ally as the broadcaster’s finance chief.

Chris kennedy will take up the post in February on a package worth up to £3.3m, succeeding Ian Griffiths.

The 54-year- old worked as easyjet’s finance chief from 2010 to 2015, during McCall’s time as its chief executive. He is currently chief financial officer of software group Micro Focus International and a non-executive director of Whitbread.

McCall, 57, who took over as ITV’s chief executive in January, said: ‘I am really pleased to be working with Chris again.

‘He will play a huge role in helping us deliver our new strategy and I know he will work really well with the senior leadership team of ITV.’

sir Peter Bazalgette, ITV’s chairman, said kennedy had been chosen partly because of his experience in the media industry at record label eMI – which was broken up in 2012 – where he held several financerelated roles over 17 years.

Before joining Micro Focus he was finance boss at software business ARM Holdings.

kennedy will receive an annual salary of £660,000 and a pension allowance of £59,400.

He can top this up with bonuses worth up to nearly £1.1m and long-term incentives of up to almost £1.5m.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: ‘The appointment of Chris kennedy may initially look a bit odd given he presided over a major profit warning at Micro Focus.’

But blaming him would ‘equate to shooting the messenger’ since the warning occurred two months into his tenure, Mould added.

‘Instead shareholders may be enthused by his previous experience at technology firm ARM and easyjet where he, alongside Carolyn McCall, presided over strong returns for shareholders,’ he said.